If Only
by Lmere969
Summary: Jac knew what Will Rodman had been hiding from Gen-sys. She knew about Caesar. But after the world ended, and they both disappeared, she'd carried on alone, hiding her secrets from the colony that was all that was left. Now they are going to come to light. If only things could have been different. V long first chapter - sorry! (Currently editing for stylistic purposes.)
1. Muscle Memory

**A/N** : Friendly reminder that this story is part of the LLF (Long Live Feedback) Comment Project, which was created to improve communication between readers and authors. This author invites and appreciates feedback, including:

\- Short reviews

\- Long reviews

\- Questions

\- Constructive criticism

\- "3" as extra 'favourites'

\- Reader-reader interaction

This author sees and appreciates all comments, and does her best to reply to all of them, but may occasionally miss one.

If you do not want a response to your comments, sign with "whisper" and the author will see and appreciate the comment but will not respond.

.

 **A/N** **(personal)** : This first chapter is waaayyyy to long, I know, but it's too late now for me to move all the later ones so... I'm very sorry. Please stick with it.  
I've also been told that this work starts off fairly slowly. I can see where they are coming from, but I promise that it does pick up, and this lays the groundwork for a lot of things to come. Enough of my ramblings, thanks for clicking on this work, I hope you enjoy it!  
.

.

"No!" I came awake with a cry, my body frozen in the darkness. The terror passed as the images began to fade from my eyes, though I knew I would never be able to totally escape them. My hands were encrusted with blood, and my dreams would always reflect that. Still breathing heavily, I pushed myself up on my elbows and twitched aside the curtains to the window over my bed.

It was still mostly dark outside but there was enough light for me to distinguish between the abandoned buildings that made up the silent city and the sky they stood against. With a sigh, I rolled out of bed, shivering slightly as I left the warmth of the duvet for the chilly air of the room. The summer fogs were still hanging around, leeching away the heat each morning and evening.

Stretching my arms over my head, I pushed up onto my toes, feeling the pull all along my body until my shoulders cracked, the popping noise loud in the quiet room. Easing back down, I fell into a crouch, pumping a couple of punches out into the air in front of me before beginning to get dressed, trying not to think, not to relive the nightmare. It worked until I was making the bed.

Looking down on the duvet, covered in blue sheets dotted with white stars, I couldn't stop the thoughts. When I'd been younger, my bed had been a place of safety, a warm cocoon of comfort. Somewhere to curl up when I was sad. Somewhere to jump onto when there was a spider on the floor. Now... now it was a festering pool of fear, a place where the guilt I hid during the day came oozing out, infesting my dreams with horror and the endless line of ghosts I'd killed. I still smoothed the duvet out to remove the creases before I turned away.

.

.  
The sky was just beginning to turn pink as I climbed up the stairs to the walkway over the main gates. It was too early for them to be open; the only way in or out during the hours of darkness was to go along the walkway and down a tight staircase at the far end, which led to a small door out to the front.

With no urge to leave, I exchanged nods with the two men on duty and leaned against the railing, watching the foggy street light up slowly as the sun broke the horizon. There was no life in the city anymore, the buildings empty and crumbling. A light breeze swept up the streets, sending my ponytail tickling against my arm. It felt like the stroking of phantom fingertips.

 _Shut up,_ I told myself firmly as I caught the long brown strands, holding them captive in my palm, but the hands that landed on my shoulders were utterly real. Teeth bared, I whipped around, my elbow out and just begging to connect with a target.

"Christ!" He leapt back just in time, hand slicing down to knock my elbow away as I spun to face him.

"Denny," I gasped. "Sorry."

"Jumpy this morning aren't we?" Denny grinned as he pulled me in for a quick kiss before wrapping his arms around me and squeezing lightly.

"Sorry," I repeated, returning the pressure. "I didn't hear you."

"You? Didn't hear something? Should we go across to the Igloo get you checked out? Ow!"

I was smiling as I jabbed him in the kidney, and he was struggling to conceal an answering grin as he pulled back.

"That hurt."

"Oh diddums," I cooed, dodging the mock punch he threw at my arm. "Now who needs the Igloo?" He laughed as he pulled me back to his side, and I wrapped an arm around his waist as we both looked out over the city.

"What are you up to today?" he asked me.

"Over at the Gardens," I replied, and he scoffed.

"Boring! Come out to the bridge with me."

I snorted, but he persisted.

"Oh come on! Just for the morning. You could use some more practice dry-firing."

"You always say I need more practice," I reminded him.

"That's because it's true," he said. "Come on. I've still got three boxes to sort out. I'll get more done if you're there."

"No, you won't."

"No, I won't, but it'll be more enjoyable," he admitted, and I shook my head ruefully.

"Alright. Just for a little while though. Sophie will kill me if I leave her weeding by herself all day."

"Wonderful," Denny said, and I let him pull me along and down the stairs, throwing the door open to the morning and pulling me through it. Laughing, I tugged away from him to push the door shut behind us, hearing the click of the lock as it engaged before jogging along in Denny's wake.

He heard my feet and glanced back, grinning at the sight of me chasing him and breaking into a run himself. I growled at his retreating back and sprang forwards. He paced himself until I drew alongside him, when we both kicked into a higher gear, tearing through the streets, leaping the cracks in the asphalt and shoving each other off-course.

We were both breathless and laughing when we finally slowed down at the place where most of the cars were kept. There were a couple closer to the colony for emergencies, but most of the small fleet was housed in this parking garage. There were more at the bridge, ones that shuttled back and forth when the guard changed, making up the total of about 20. More than we needed, for the most part. The majority of them sat unused at the back of the garage. Denny led the way across to one of the smaller cars, a silver hatchback. The larger Jeeps were only really used for longer trips out of the city.

"I so had you at the end," Denny bragged as he opened the door and flipped the visor down, catching the keys as they fell out. I sniffed in dismissal.

"I wasn't really trying," I said, going round to the other side and sliding inside.

"Liar," he scoffed, laughing as I scowled at him. He twisted the keys in the ignition and the car rumbled into life.

.

.

No matter how many times I saw it, the bridge never failed to a burst of pride in my chest. It was a humbling sight, an epic one, an iconic one, at least it had been, before the world fell apart.

Afterwards, the picture everyone knew had a troop of apes disappearing into the fog. I turned away, slamming the car door and letting the sharp sound disperse the memories. Catching Denny's hand as I skipped after him, I pulled him close to share in the warmth of his body as we crossed to the warehouse that stood on a hill overlooking the bridge. The checkpoint was visible, off to the side, and I could glimpse the armoury below us. The air was still full of the night's chill and the fog swirled around us as it dissipated reluctantly, but Denny radiated heat. I teased him mercilessly that it was because he was ginger, but that wasn't true. It was just him. The warehouse was no warmer than outside, and a gust of chilling air greeted us as we pulled open the doors.

"Hey, Den." One of the other men intercepted us as we stood in the entrance, clapping Denny on the shoulder.

"Nick. Anything happening?"

"Oh yeah, we had a fucking concert. Y'know, all the big stars, lights, speakers, the whole package."

"Hilarious."

"Shame you missed it, mate," Nick sighed tragically, then leaned forwards to shoot me a grin. "Alright, Jac?" He winked. "Still hanging around this old geezer?"

"It would seem so," I shot back.

"Ah well. You'll get bored one day. You know where to find me when that happens."

Denny growled, jabbing out his elbow, but Nick dodged away, his flashing eyes still on me. I grabbed Denny's arm before he could lunge after him.

"Yep. Alone in your room with your right hand," I said carelessly, then pulled Denny's head down to mine, taking his mouth with my own. He responded enthusiastically, hands winding around my waist at once. It was several long seconds before we broke apart.

"Hot," Nick said and I laughed, pulling Denny with me into the warehouse. "I'll be thinking of you this evening!" Nick shouted after us before jogging away. I shook my head ruefully and Denny even cracked a slight grin.

"He's such a..." He shook his head, apparently unable to find the words.

"He's harmless," I laughed. "C'mon." With a sigh, Denny took the lead, wending his way through the maze of shelves and boxes with a familiarity born from hundreds of hours spent among them. I looked up at the stacks of tins and cans as we passed. My stomach tightened. I'd helped gather this bounty, my hands had been the ones to carry them back here. The whole colony had spent the first few years scavenging all that we could.

The first year had been awful; people dying in droves, and those that remained banding together to claim all they could until most of them died as well. Eventually, it had been necessity as much as sense that had driven us all together, pooling our spoils and organising to get more. We'd been merciless, breaking into every single house in the city in a systematic search, stripping the cupboards of food, medicine, toiletries, anything we could get our hands on. We'd been just as brutal with cars—smashing windows to get in, taking out any supplies, draining them of fuel, even taking the batteries, though that was to shut up the alarms as much as it was for the power they contained. The result; this horde, and our survival.

I'd fought to be part of the scavenging team because I couldn't face the job of those who came behind. Dragging bodies out into the street, and burning them. I'd killed those people but hadn't been able to send them off. When I'd seen the bodies in the houses, in the cars, in the streets, I'd turned away and never, ever told anyone that I was responsible. In the start, it had been too dangerous to do so. They would have ripped me to pieces and burned me alive. Not necessarily in that order. After things settled, I couldn't see any reason to come clean. What good would it have done?

"Here."

I jumped at the sound, pulling myself back to the present. Denny was holding out a 9mm gun to me. I glanced at his hands out of habit, but they were empty.

"No sexy ear-protectors and goggles?"

He grinned. "No bullets, no explosion."

I took the gun from him, ejecting the magazine and checking the chamber to make sure both were empty. Denny nodded in approval, then jerked his head back to the hanger at the side that we used as a makeshift shooting range whenever Denny was teaching. Leaping lightly up the steps, I pushed the magazine back into the butt of the gun and took up my stance, both hands on the gun as I sighted at the large, wobbly circle roughly spray-painted onto the thick wall at the end of the range.

"Tell me about your grip," Denny said, even as I heard the shuffling of cardboard as he opened a box.

"Light trigger hand, firm supporting hand," I said.

"Why is that?"

"More control and sensitivity in the trigger finger."

"Good."

I exhaled, and squeezed, waiting, waiting... the small 'click!' was oddly satisfying. Relax. Breathe. Squeeze... click!

"Feel the mechanism, how the gun reacts. Know when it's going to fire, how it feels when it does."

I grinned but didn't lose my focus.

"I'm serious." He sounded it too, apparently having noticed my smile. "It's all about familiarity. Muscle memory, just like all that fancy kicking you do."

I frowned as I squeezed a couple more times. "It's not 'fancy kicking'. It's self-defence."

"And how long have you been doing it?"

"Since I was 11."

"Exactly. Muscle memory. It's ingrained into you. You'll never freeze because your body knows what to do. This is the same. And you don't want to freeze when you're staring down a target with a loaded gun."

I paused, trying to blink the image away, my mind totally blank and buzzing at the same time.

"Hey," Denny said softly, the sounds of his movement conspicuously absent. "I just want you to be safe."

I smiled and shook off the moment. "I know." Taking another breath, I raised the gun again.

.

.

I kept going until my arms ached and I could no longer hold the gun steady. Relaxing my stance, I rolled my shoulders to work out the stiffness that had settled into them as I walked back towards Denny, who was shoving the second box away as he looked up at me from where he was lounging on the floor. For a moment, I thought he was going to try and persuade me to stay longer, but I gave him a look and he nodded, reaching out a hand for the gun, which I relinquished happily for him to check over before stowing it away. His movements with it were much surer than mine had been, which wasn't exactly a surprise.

Denny had been a firearms instructor for the police before the world had ended. His skills had been invaluable in the first wave of chaos. I'd first seen him on the news, protecting Dreyfus, back when he'd been the mayor. I'd barely recognised either of them when we'd finally come face to face more than half a year later. Denny had taught every one of us how to handle a gun properly, ready to defend ourselves from the roving gangs that were still operating back then. They'd died out not long after that, but Denny had continued with his lessons, putting the skills of his former life to use.

As the main doors of the warehouse came into view, I blinked. Speak of the devil... Dreyfus himself was standing just outside, his back to us as he watched something outside my field of vision. It took another few steps before I could see what he was looking at; two jeeps, facing out along the bridge at the checkpoint.

"Chief?"

Dreyfus glanced round as Denny spoke, moving up to stand beside him, as he too looked over at the jeeps. Narrowing my eyes, I could recognise Ellie and Malcolm, but we were too far away for me to make our their expressions.

"The dam?" Denny asked, and Dreyfus nodded.

"Yeah. Carver's gone over the plans with Luke. He thinks he can get it going, or isolate any problems at least."

I looked away. Luke creeped me out. He always looked at me like he knew every secret I was hiding. Luckily, he spent almost all his time away from the colony, making sure the water kept running. An engineer for the water department, we were all exceptionally fortunate that he'd survived, but I still avoided him on the rare days when he was around. We stood watching for a few more minutes until I heard the sound of another car starting up behind us, and I glanced around.

"See you later," I said to Denny, brushing my hand over his shoulder before I turned and jogged away. He nodded, catching my hand to give it a gentle squeeze just before I was out of range. Throwing a quick smile back over my shoulder I lengthened my stride and reached the car just in time. Nick looked over as I tapped on the glass before opening the door.

"Heading back?"

"Yep."

"Any chance of a lift?"

He grinned. "Sure."

I climbed in and closed the door, looking back over my shoulder as he pulled off. The jeeps were moving out. I turned slowly back to face the front. The wide grin slid off Nick's face as he caught my expression.

"You saw them?" I asked.

"Malcolm?" He nodded, glancing in the rearview mirror, then across at me. "It'll be okay, Jac. Carver will get the dam working again. He's gotta be good for something, eh?"

I smiled and tried to find the feeling to go with the expression.

"Yeah. I know. 'Course he will."

.

.

With a hasty thanks to Nick, I climbed out of the car before we got back to the parking garage, jogging away on a perpendicular path through the dead city, heading towards the single patch of life. The Gardens had once been a park, but the ornamental shrubs and winding paths had long since been ripped out. It was organised with military precision with neat blocks of dark brown or green, all held under Wendy's careful eye. Some taller fruit trees, carefully cultivated over the years, were the only form of cover, and I used them to all their spindly advantage as I walked quickly between the plots, eyes darting between my goal and Wendy's ignorant back.

Luckily, she was busy inspecting the new shoots of winter carrots, and I slipped past unnoticed, dropping to my hands and knees beside Sophie. She looked around at my abrupt arrival, and shook her head, sending her long, fiery ponytail whipping from side to side.

"Nice of you to drop in," she said wryly. I grinned and stuck my tongue out. "Excuse?"

"Denny."

Her eyebrows waggled in silent question and I scowled.

"No!"

"Boring," she snorted, eyes turning back down. I rolled my eyes before imitating her, shifting into a slightly more comfortable position before combing my hands over the soil, sorting out any stones and weeds, until a slight noise made me look up, and my mood soured instantly. Alex was watching me from the other side of the plot.

"What?" I snapped.

He didn't say anything, merely sniffing before lowering his eyes. I felt Sophie glance sideways at me, but I continued to glower at his lowered head. It wasn't until I looked away that he spoke.

"I could report you," he said without looking up, his voice barely more than a whisper.

"Go on then," I replied, just as quietly. It was an empty threat, and I knew it. I'd dealt with Alex for ten years. I could deal with him for ten more. That didn't mean I didn't indulge in a few violent fantasies when he didn't reply. All of which involved his premature... disappearance. We worked on in a sullen silence until everyone broke for water. Alex smirked at me before he strode off and I glowered at his back as he left.

"You two never cease to amaze me," Sophie said, eyeing me over the brim of her cup.

"He started it," I grumbled, waiting for my turn.

"Yes," she allowed. "But after you put him on his ass in front of everyone, he wasn't going to walk away."

"I would have thought it was the perfect time for him to start leaving me alone."

Someone finished and put their cup down on the table, where I quickly snatched it up and half-filled it before retreating from the barrel.

"I wish you wouldn't do that," Sophie said.

"Why not?" I bristled. "If he says something, I'm not gonna take it quietly. He's a..."

She was shaking her head. "No. _That_ ," she said, nodding to my cup. I blinked and drained it quickly.

"I've only been here half the time," I reminded her as I turned away. She also drained her cup, returning it before hurrying after me.

"So?"

I ignored her, keeping one eye on Alex and being sure to head in the other direction.

"I bet you didn't have anything this morning either."

I kept my mouth shut. She was right of course. I wasn't even hungry. My stomach was so used to me skipping meals it had stopped complaining about it.

"You really shouldn't—" she pushed, but I rounded on her.

"Drop it," I said, backing up the words with a hard look.

Her mouth closed but she didn't look happy and she didn't say another word to me as we settled beside a new patch and began combing through it. The silence stretched into uncomfortable territory before I broke it.

"Malcolm and Ellie left this morning," I said to the dirt under my fingers. "With Carver." I saw Sophie look up in my peripheral vision, then drop her head again. Silence reigned a little longer.

"Do you think they'll fix it?" she said eventually.

"I don't know. But Carver's got to be good for something," I repeated Nick's words. "Hopefully it will be this."

"What if they don't?"

I glanced around, but Sophie wasn't looking at me. She was gazing off over the trees, to where the rooftops of the dead city were visible.

"What if they can't?"

"Then we'll find another way," I said firmly. "We'll survive. Like always."

She blinked and looked around at me, smiling gently before returning to the work. "What were you? Before?"

My stomach clenched. "I worked in a lab."

"Oh yeah, that's right."

A pause. I hoped she would drop the subject.

"What was it like?"

Apparently, I hoped in vain.

"Pretty boring," I said carelessly. "Same thing every day. Take this over there. Print out these results. Run this test. Run it again. The highlight of my day was making coffee."

She laughed, and I forced a similar noise from my own throat, which felt tighter with every word.

"Everything is so different now," she said after a moment, and this time I was the one who looked up, staring over the rooftops into the endless sky. It was still blue.

"Yeah," I sighed. "It is."


	2. A Flash of Fire

By the time we returned to the colony as the sun was setting, my hands were stained brown. Sophie and I climbed together up to the third floor and each ducked into our own rooms to grab some clean clothes. Since mine was closer to the showers, I got there first. I'd expected them to be empty, with everyone would be queuing for dinner, but they weren't. The splash of water on the floor stopped seconds after the door closed behind me, and I averted my eyes as one of the cubicles opened and a woman with blonde hair emerged, a towel wrapped around herself. Not until she was level with me did I meet her eyes.

"Ellie? You're back already? What happened? Did something go wrong?"

She did not return my gaze, turned away as she began to dress slightly haphazardly.

"Ellie?" I asked again, as she wriggled into her jeans. "What's wrong?"

"I can't say anything," she said.

I stared at her back. "What does that mean?" I asked slowly.

"I can't, Jac," she said, more forcefully this time, before finally turning to face me, her damp hair still dripping onto her top. "I'm sorry."

"What did you see up there?" I said quietly, but she shook her head and was gone. I didn't move, staring after her. For a second, I almost followed here to demand answers but my stomach clenched and I mentally slapped myself. I didn't deserve answers and if she said she couldn't tell me, I shouldn't push. Hearing footsteps outside the door, I turned away and began to strip off my dirty clothes, leaving them in a heap on the floor next to my pile of clean ones.

"Hey," Sophie said as she entered. "I thought I saw Ellie outside, but didn't you say she'd gone with Malcolm and Carver?"

"Hmm." I didn't look at her.

"They can't be back already," Sophie mused. "Did you see her?"

"No. I didn't see anyone," I lied, turned away and slipping into one of the cubicles, shutting the door behind me.

"Huh. Maybe it wasn't her," Sophie said.

I didn't reply, hanging up my towel and turning the water on. Tilting my head back, I let the water run over my hair and down my back, dripping into my ears and blocking out the world.

.

.

Cold water does not invite relaxation, and I was done in the shower in minutes, rubbing away the chill before getting dressed again. I was out the door before Sophie was done, walking quickly down the corridor and slipping into my room. Alone, I hesitated, one hand still on the wood as I remained utterly still, my mind racing too fast for me to keep up.

What had they seen? What had happened up at the dam? And why wasn't Ellie allowed to talk about it?

Practically throwing my dirty clothes across the room, I turned on my heel and left again. Walking quickly, I reached the end of the corridor in seconds, jumping down the back stairs three at a time. At the bottom, I turned left, away from the main doors, wending my way through the building to the Igloo. The small room was blocked off by white plastic sheeting that hung across the doorway, giving the makeshift hospital its name. I poked my head inside, scanning the beds quickly.

"Jac."

I jumped at the voice from the right, turning as Nathan rose to his feet. The doctor looked tired, as he always did, but still smiled as he walked towards me. At the other end of the room, Aysha glanced up from where she sat next to a coughing child, creases marring her shadowed skin as she assessed me in a single gaze, then dropped her eyes again.

"What's the matter? Is something wrong?" Nathan asked as my eyes made a second, more thorough search of the room.

"No. Nothing. I'm fine," I muttered. "Has anyone come in? Anyone been injured?" The words burst from me without my permission.

Nathan frowned. "No. Why?"

"Nothing. Doesn't matter," I said hastily and withdrew, jogging away before he could call me back. Two turns away, I stopped, leaning against the wall and kneading my eyes. No-one was hurt. So it was something else. What had happened? Had it been... What if... They could have...

"Stop it!" I growled, trying to shut off the stream of half-formed ideas. Taking deep breaths, I tried to quieten my mind, then I was off again, heading across to the mess hall. Hovering in the doorway, I scanned the tables carefully. Sophie, with her instantly recognizable hair, had her back to me. Denny was only a couple of seats away, sitting with a group of watchers, Nick among them. Wendy and Alex were at opposite ends of the same table, though in separate groups.

Ellie wasn't there. I looked again, checking every face. But she remained absent. Malcolm wasn't there either. Or Carver. Or Dreyfus. What did that mean? I turned away.

 _It doesn't mean anything,_ I chided myself. Dreyfus was absent from meals almost as often as I was. I nearly left then, back up to my room to sit and puzzle it all over, but my stomach had lifted its head hopefully at the smell of food. I had denied it for too long already so I went back in, helping myself to a small bowl of pasta and slipping a cereal bar into my pocket as I walked over to sit between Sophie and Denny, a well-practised smile on my face as I exchanged greetings. After then years of pretending everything was fine, it was like second nature to me now.

.

.

I left quickly after I finished eating, tired of the pretence and mindless conversation but my quiet room was no better. With a sigh, I slumped down onto my bed, staring up at the ceiling. Something had happened at the dam, but there seemed little hope of me finding out what it was when everyone who might know was hiding. Rolling back up to my feet, I stood before the window and stared out in the direction of Muir Woods. Though I couldn't actually see across the bay from here, I imagined my gaze piercing the buildings and honing in on the mystery. Even in my mind's eye, it was dark and shadowy. Unsolvable. Sighing, I turned away from the window, pulling the curtains shut as I changed into my pyjamas and wriggled into bed. I lay awake for a long time.

.

.

 _"Will, I know you're in there!" I hammered on the door again. "Just because you decide to be the definition of 'working from home', doesn't mean all the things you have to sign magically go away!" With a sigh I let my hand drop, resting the stack of paperwork on my hip._

 _"Come on, Will. We're worried about you. Franklin's worried about you. Not enough to come himself of course. What would the dogsbody do then?" My heart leapt in fierce triumph. Someone was moving on the other side of the door, a dark figure shifting behind the rippled glass._

 _"Don't ask me to slide it under the door again!" I called. "Franklin nearly had a fit when I told him." I waited, but there was no response. I frowned, staring at the motionless outline I could see._

 _"I'll break the door down," I threatened mildly._

 _It was a bluff, but not without cause. I'd kicked Franklin's office door open. In my first week. By accident, of course. As I opened my mouth to call again, a second figure joined the first. I frowned, my head bobbing back and forth as I tried to see. They seemed to be arguing, both gesticulating furiously. Maybe Mr Rodman was having a bad day? I waited, watching as best I could until one of the figures turned and disappeared. The other came towards the door and opened it a crack._

 _"Dr Rodman," I said pleasantly, with my most charming smile. "Lovely to see you."_

 _Will scowled slightly as he opened the door a fraction more._

 _"I hope your father is well."_

 _Will's shoulders slumped. "Yeah, he's doing great Jac, thanks for asking."_

 _Great? The last time I'd seen my old piano teacher, he wouldn't have been able to identify the notes on a keyboard._

 _"Excellent," I said crisply. "As you may have gathered I have some papers that require your signature." I held them out and Will let go of the door at last, reaching out to take them and flicking through the top couple. I barely noticed the weight leave my hand._

 _"Will," I said, very calmly and slowly._

 _"Hmm?" he said, without looking up._

 _"Why is there a chimp in your kitchen?"_

.

.

I sat bolt upright in bed.

 _Caesar_.

Idle-remembrance or memory-fuelled dream, I wasn't sure which, but my subconscious had given me an answer. I was out of bed and halfway to the door when I stopped.

No, it couldn't have been Caesar that Ellie had encountered in the woods. He was dead. I'd seen the flames from the bombs the government had dropped, barely two weeks after Caesar had escaped. I'd known what they meant, and it hadn't changed. Caesar and his whole troop of apes were gone. Dead. Burned to a crisp. The city had burned that night as well. As the power failed, and the lights went out, the last traces of humanity had been lost. We had burned just as surely as the apes had.

 _You're still alive,_ a voice told me. I slumped back down onto the bed as I shook my head. I shouldn't be. It was all my fault. Everything was my fault. I shouldn't have lived.

 _But you did. You survived. Maybe some of them did too._

"No." I said it aloud and believed it.

The apes, like most of the people, were gone. Caesar was gone.

I sat quite still, gazing at nothing, remembering. Remembering the explanation in Will's kitchen that had taken almost half an hour. Charles wandering in part way through, his exclamation of 'Jacqueline!' when he recognised me. Will had been right. He'd been cured. And Caesar... I smiled as I remembered the young chimp frolicking around the kitchen. Caesar was one of a kind. And no-one at Gen-sys knew about him. Will had practically begged me to keep it that way. Staring into Caesar's green and gold eyes, eyes so full of life and intelligence, there had been only one answer I could give.

But he was dead.

So what had Ellie and Malcolm found up there? The answer came to me in a flash of fire.

The dam had been burned. Of course. That must be what had happened. When the government had firebombed the apes, the fire must have spread to the dam and damaged it.

My shoulders slumped, partly from relief at solving the mystery, and partly from despair. That was it then. No power coming from the dam. So what would we do now? Only two weeks of fuel left. After that? Would we descend once more into anarchy? No, Dreyfus would stop that happening. He'd talked down a riot only days after the outbreak. Now, with so few of us left, it was even more important that we stick together. I had to believe that we were capable of that. In hopeful trepidation, I lay back down, crawling under the covers and closed my eyes.

.

.

In the darkness, I rolled over. Solving the mystery hadn't made sleep any easier. Now, there were a hundred new questions hounding my heels, a million forgotten memories rediscovered and uncountable reasons to feel guilty.

 _Murderer_. The voice was back, harsher now. I did my best to ignore it but wasn't very successful. I didn't want to listen anymore, didn't want to think, to remember.

I sat up. It wasn't that late, I'd heard other people moving past my room not too long ago. Standing, I crossed the room on silent feet and slipped out the door. It was very dark, but I kept one hand trailing lightly along the wall as I padded along to the stairs and climbing stealthily upwards. The hard steps under my feet were as icy as the steel handrail. The doorway at the next landing was just visible - a patch of deepest blue in the sea of black. I knew the route perfectly, even in the dark. Right, then the third door on the left. Without bothering to knock, I eased the door open and slipped inside. It was just as dark here as in my room, but my eyes were well adjusted, and I could see the lump on the bed.

"Denny?" I breathed, the whisper loud in the still air.

"Jac." He sat up, his hair visible even in the darkness. "You nearly gave me a heart attack. What's wrong?"

I didn't reply, standing in silence just inside the door until Denny rolled off the bed and walked across to take my face in his hands.

"Make me forget," I breathed.

He didn't ask any questions. He didn't need to. That was all any of us wanted; to forget. As he pulled me close, I went willingly and tried not to think anymore.

.

.

I woke late the next morning, held in the warm circle of Denny's arms.

"Hey," he said, and I smiled. He'd always been able to tell when I was awake, even though I was facing away from him.

"Hi," I breathed back, reluctant to disturb the peaceful silence.

"Are you okay? You seemed really... off last night."

I hesitated, wondering what to say. "Do you remember, just after the outbreak, when Muir Woods caught fire?" I asked.

"Yeah. Some of the Alpha-Omega lot no doubt," he said bitterly.

I bit my tongue.

"What about it?"

"I think it might have reached the dam."

Denny pulled back from me, lifting himself up onto his elbow. I rolled over and looked up at him.

"Why do you say that?" he frowned.

"Ellie was back yesterday afternoon. I asked her what had happened, but she said she couldn't tell me. I think there's a problem with the dam, and Dreyfus told them to keep it quiet."

"They came back? I didn't see any of them."

"I know, I didn't see anyone at dinner either. I think they're trying to avoid questions."

Denny was silent for a moment, staring past me, across his room. After a couple of minutes, he looked back to me.

"If there is something wrong with the dam," he said slowly, "Dreyfus won't keep it quiet for long. He's probably just working on a new plan so people don't freak out."

I nodded half-heartedly, then rolled out of bed and pulled on my pyjamas.

"I'll mention it to him today if I get a chance," Denny said, placing a reassuring hand on my shoulder. "Don't worry about it."

I gave him a quick smile and kiss before slipping out of his room, scurrying back down to mine. It was quiet—everyone was down at breakfast. I dressed at top speed and was just tying the laces of my boots when the wailing klaxon broke the soft silence to pieces. My head jerked up as my heart stopped beating.


	3. Caesar!

Unarmed but ready to fight with my bare knuckles if I had to, I raced down the stairs, coming to a halt two steps from the bottom. The mass of people below were all clamouring to each other over the din of the siren, their expressions ranging from worry to terror.

Looking out over all the heads, I saw Malcolm and Dreyfus hurrying down the steps from the walkway together, both looking grim-faced. The klaxon cut out, for which my ears were exceptionally grateful, and the main door slid slowly open. Everyone fell silent at once, all eyes turning to the front.

From my place at the side, I couldn't see what was outside the door and leapt down the last steps to slip into the crowd as it inched forwards, stopping just short of the gate. Still unable to see anything, I listened instead, trying to hear what was going on, but the nervous whispering and shuffling of the crowd were impossible to filter out.

"Malcolm!"

That was Dreyfus's voice, raising in something between alarm and annoyance. The silence stretched a little longer as the crowd continued to edge slowly forwards. I heard something that sounded like a horse whinnying, a sound so out of place that it took me a second to identify it. Longer and longer the silence held until it felt like the whole crowd was holding its breath, waiting.

" _APES_..."

Those at the front gasped and drew back, ripples of panicked talk crashing over and around me. I didn't move, frozen, paralyzed by shock.

Apes. Who was it that shouted in such a rough voice, shattering my world with a single word? Apes. Were there more people? Maybe another colony had travelled down in the hope of finding us, gone through Muir Woods, and encountered some of the remnants of Caesar's troop. Maybe some of them had survived the bombing after all.

" _DO NOT WANT WAR..._ "

Do not want... Apes. Apes do not want war.

My breath catching audibly in my throat. I began to shove my way forwards, fighting to the front but the crowd resisted my efforts and the rough, barking voice continued.

" _BUT WILL FIGHT... IF WE MUST._ "

Redoubling my efforts, I finally broke out of the gates, but there were still more people in front of me, guns held tightly in their hands. I darted to the left, round the other side of a column, and froze.

Apes. Hundreds of them, all standing in total silence, staring towards the colony. My eyes were drawn to movement at the front, and I saw Malcolm, standing alone in the middle of the road as an ape dropped something on the ground in front of him. The ape turned away, and Malcolm bent down. I couldn't see what he picked up, but as he looked up at the horse directly in front of him, I followed his gaze. The ape sitting on its back was covered with white war-paint but the longer I stared at him, the more familiar he looked. He turned away from me, one hand pointing back, away from the colony, across the bay.

" _APE HOME._ " He turned, his arm rising towards us now. " _HUMAN HOME._ "

As his arm dropped back down, I saw his chest. Even hidden by the streaks of white paint, I could just make out a pale patch on his left breast.

A birthmark.

Caesar.

The ape looked directly down at Malcolm, and though he didn't shout, his words still carried to my ears.

" _Do not come back_." He pulled the horse's head around, and my control broke. I stumbled down three more steps.

"CAESAR!" Every head, human and ape, turned to stare at me, but I barely noticed. For an age I stared into the eyes which I knew, if I was closer, would be flecked with green and gold. Then he turned away, kicking his horse into motion. My knees trembled as I leaned against the column, watching his retreating back. The other apes had all turned away too, following Caesar out of the city. Except one.

In the mass of movement, the stillness caught my eye, and I stared into another face that was familiar to me.

Scarred and snarling, huge teeth and one pale white eye, the spear over his shoulder so long it nearly touched the ground. One of the apes from Gen-sys lab. The one who'd been given ALZ-113 when everything had gone wrong.

Koba.

He stared at me for another second, lips pulling back even further to reveal another inch of canines, and I knew that he recognised me too. In that instant, I fully believed that he remembered the face of every single human who had ever walked past his cage at Gen-sys. Then he turned and left. I drew in a deep, shuddering breath as the humans erupted into chaos behind me.


	4. Explain

Sliding down the wall until I was sitting on my heels, I stared numbly at the damp floor in front of me and tried to remember to breathe.

Caesar was alive. He was _alive_. And his family had grown. A lot. I didn't know how many apes had first crossed the Golden Gate Bridge, disappearing into Muir Wood, but I was certain it hadn't been that many.

Vaguely, I was aware of Dreyfus's voice, hugely magnified, trying to calm the mob below. The words didn't register with me as I crouched in my own spinning world. It was nearly five minutes before footsteps hailed his approach. Malcolm, who'd been watching me in silence since he'd grabbed my arm and dragged me up here, stood up from where he'd been sitting on an old metal stool.

The world darkened as Dreyfus appeared, blocking out the light from the window.

"Nice speech," Malcolm muttered sourly, but Dreyfus ignored him, moving forward to stand in front of me, so I couldn't look anywhere without seeing his feet out the corner of my eyes.

He waited.

Taking a breath, I stood up slowly, though my eyes remained on his shoes.

"Jac," he said, and though his voice wasn't angry, I flinched. "Explain."

I closed my eyes. This was it. This was the end.

"ALZ-113," I said.

"What?" Malcolm asked, taking a step closer.

"ALZ-113," I said again, louder, glancing over at him.

"Yeah, the Simian Flu drug." Dreyfus caught on. "What about it?"

I opened my mouth, then reconsidered. "It was an Alzheimer's treatment or it was meant to be. Gen-sys were testing it on chimps. There was an accident and the containment failed, and that's how people started getting infected." I took a breath. "But before that, there was another drug. ALZ-112. They tested it on a chimp called Bright Eyes." I raised my eyes. "She was Caesar's mother."

Malcolm and Dreyfus exchanged a glance.

"I'm not following," Malcolm said.

"It made him smart," I said, my words coming faster now. "Very smart. Just like you or me."

"And that's why he can talk."

I hesitated. "I guess so. I didn't know he could do that."

There was a brief pause.

"Did you know he was up there?" Dreyfus asked quietly.

My head snapped up, and I stared at him.

"No," I said. "A week or so after the apes escaped, something happened. There was a huge fire up in the woods. I thought they'd all been killed."

"Well, it seems they weren't," Malcolm muttered.

"Yes, I think that's pretty damn clear now!" I snarled.

"Enough!" Dreyfus said, raising his hands. "It doesn't matter. The point is, we know that they're up there. So what now? We still need that power."

"You've got to be joking," I snorted. "Didn't you hear him? 'Do not come back'."

"We need that dam working," Dreyfus insisted. "It's the only way to get the radio transmitter working, to reach the outside world." He looked at Malcolm, and I could see he was wavering. "Power can lead us back to the life we once had. There is no other way. No matter the cost."

Malcolm dropped his eyes and for the first time, I looked down at what he was holding in his hands. It was a bag.

"I'll go back up there. Talk to him. Explain," he said.

"No." The hardness is my voice surprised all three of us. "I'll go."

Dreyfus threw up his hands in exasperation. "Hold on, what if it doesn't work? What if he gets violent? I don't care how smart he's meant to be, he's an ape! What if he doesn't understand you?"

I opened my mouth to retort but Malcolm spoke first.

"No." He held out the bag between us. "He's more than just an ape." He met my gaze, and I let out the breath I'd been holding. A spark of understanding finally passed between us.

"I'll come with you," he said, but I shook my head.

"No. I go alone. I knew him. I'm the best chance you've got."

"How?"

I frowned at him, confused.

"How did you know him?" Malcolm elaborated. "How do you know all this?"

I paused, but it seemed the time had come.

No more hiding.

No more secrets.

"Before all this, I worked at Gen-sys. The ALZ-113, the Simian Flu, I helped make it."

"You helped... what?" The two men exchanged flabbergasted looks. An uncomfortable silence sat between us as they looked from me to each other, and back again.

"Let's keep that between us," Dreyfus said slowly, and I closed my eyes in silent relief. There was a moment of tense silence, the truth hanging heavy between us. "When will you leave?" he asked, his voice brisk again.

"As soon as I'm ready," I said, looking to Malcolm. "Have you got a map? Something that shows where you saw them?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I can show you."

I nodded. "Okay, thanks."

We stood for another couple of seconds in silence, then I turned and strode from the room, my mind already buzzing with things I would need to pack.

I turned the corner and thought I saw a flash of movement but when I looked again, there was nothing there. As I paused, staring down the passage, I heard Dreyfus's voice behind me.

"This is ridiculous," he said.

"It'll be worth it if it works," Malcolm countered. "If she can persuade him to let us up there..."

"Persuade him? She not going to persuade him! She won't even get near them. This is such a waste of time," Dreyfus hissed.

"Let's give her a chance."

"Fine. She can have a chance, but I'm going to take some men over to Fort Point, sort through the armoury, see what still works. If she hasn't got you up there and working on the dam in three days, we're going up there, and we're going to kill them all."

.

.

Hurrying down the stairs, I'd just reached the ground when a memory and an idea popped into my head. I needed to find Denny. I scanned the people around me, all of whom were throwing me questioning glances, but his muted ginger hair was no-where to be seen. Nick's face caught my eye. I strode over.

"Nick, have you seen Denny?"

"Yeah," he said, "he just left. Didn't look happy."

I paused. Nick didn't look happy either. They were all suspicious of me now but I didn't have time to explain.

"How long ago?" I asked.

"Less than a minute," Nick said, his eyes jerking towards the main gates.

I wheeled around, breaking into a jog that became a run as I slipped through the gates and sprinted towards the parking garage. I only had to turn one corner before I saw a figure walking ahead of me.

"Denny!" I shouted.

He stopped but didn't turn round, even when I skidded to a halt beside him.

"Denny, do we have any children's toys in the warehouse?" I panted.

"Dunno," Denny said, without looking at me, and it was the avoidance of my eyes made me stop.

"What's wrong?"

He didn't reply. He looked positively surly, hands in his pockets, face set.

"Look," I sighed, "I'm sorry I didn't tell you, but I swear, I had no idea he was even still alive. I didn't think it was worth mentioning that my boss's pet had been a chimp, that's all. I promise."

His eyes snapped to mine and they were burning. "Didn't think it was worth mentioning that you caused all this either apparently."

I took a step backwards, shocked at the venom in his voice. "What?"

"I was listening."

"You were listening." My voice was curiously empty. That was the movement I'd seen as I'd left the room... Denny had been listening from outside the door. "Denny..."

"Don't," he snarled and I shut my mouth. "You've been lying, to me, to everyone, ever since the beginning."

"Please," I said. "Let me explain."

"No," he snapped. "I don't want to hear it. I don't even want to look at you right now." And he didn't, turning away and walking off down the street. "I'll look for your toys," he said bitterly over his shoulder. "I'll leave a box at the checkpoint if I find any." And he left.

I let him go, standing alone in the middle of the street as tears slid silently down my face.

.

.

Most of the crowd had dispersed by the time I got back to the colony, but I barely noticed. The numbness of my body was echoed in the emptiness of my mind as I walked slowly up the stairs and turned left on the first floor, slipping quietly into a large storeroom and closing the door behind me. I looked up at the supplies and swallowed. Wiping my eyes I moved across to the shelves and reached out for a rucksack. It wasn't until I saw them against the dark material that I realised my hands were shaking. Balling them into fists, I closed my eyes and took three deep breaths.

"Enough," I said firmly and opened my eyes again. Snatching up the pack, I moved purposefully around the room, trying to decide what to take. It was fairly depleted already, no doubt by Malcolm's group collecting supplies for their trip, but I managed to get everything I wanted, shoving it all roughly into my pack. A handful of energy bars and a first aid kit went into the smaller pocket, where I could reach them easier. I glanced around then slipped back out the door, hurrying back along to the stairs and climbing up to my room. I kept my eyes down as I passed other people and closed the door firmly behind me.

Throwing the pack onto my bed, I crossed to the shelves and began rooting through my stuff. Right at the bottom of my pile of clothes, I found what I was looking for. Two pairs of cargo pants. Kicking off my boots, I stripped off my jeans and then paused, my legs cold in the chill air. Slowly, I turned and walked over to the drawer closest to my bed, my hand hovering over the handle. Koba's snarling face flashed through my mind and I pulled it open, fingers searching right at the back until they came into contact with something cold and hard.

Carefully, I extracted the two knives and lay them down on my bed. They were both good blades. I'd stolen them from an arms shop on the outskirts of the city. Other people had already broken in and cleaned out the guns, but I'd managed to grab these two before disappearing back into the night.

The longer of the pair, a fixed blade of about seven inches, I strapped to my right thigh, where I knew there was a false pocket in the pants through which I could access it quickly. It felt cold and heavy, but the leather sheath warmed quickly against my skin as I clinched the straps tightly. I stretched my leg a couple of times, checking the fit. It felt odd, but not uncomfortable, so I grabbed the cargo pants and carefully slipped them over the knife. The smaller knife, a four-inch switchblade, I clipped onto a pocket and checked that I could reach both blades easily. Satisfied, I tucked the other pair of pants in the pack, along with a thick jumper. I was glancing around the room when a knock on the door made me look over. I paused, then strode across and opened it. It was Ellie. Standing back, I let her in and shut the door behind her.

"Malcolm told me," she said.

 _How much?_ I wanted to ask but resisted. She was smiling, so probably not everything.

"He said he was sorting something out, but asked if I'd show you this." She held up a folded piece of paper and I stared for a moment before realising what it was. A map.

I moved forward and she turned, spreading it out on the bed.

"What happened up there?" I asked before she could say anything else.

Ellie hesitated for a fraction of a second. "Carver shot one of them."

" _Shit_."

"Yeah." With a sigh, Ellie leaned over and traced her finger up a trail on the map and I leaned in to look. "We drove up here, left the jeeps around there, then walked up this way." Her finger moved up, onto the smaller path that showed a hiking trail. "Around here, we stopped to look at the map, to check which way to go," her finger paused next to a fork in the trail, "and Carver kept on going. Next thing I know, there's a gunshot. We all ran after him, and saw these two apes, and Carver with his gun on them."

"Was it dead? The one he shot, did it die?"

"I don't think so. But then a whole load more of them appeared."

"Where did they come from? Which direction?"

"Up there," Ellie said, drawing a line across towards the path from the north-west. "They came so fast, it was unbelievable."

I didn't say anything.

"Jac?"

I shook myself, reaching out and taking one last look at the map before folding it up and putting it in my pack.

"Thanks," I said, turning to face her and then suddenly she was hugging me.

"Be careful," she murmured.

I was so shocked, especially after Denny's reaction, that it was a second before I managed to raise my arms and hug her back. But then again, I thought, as we broke apart, she didn't know the whole story. I smiled anyway as she crossed the room and slipped out.

Sitting down on the edge of the bed, I pulled my boots back on, lacing them up quickly. As I straightened, there was another knock. This time, it was Malcolm. I stepped back to let him in but didn't shut the door, going over to the bed instead and zipping up the pack.

"Did Ellie come and see you?"

I nodded.

"I moved one of the jeeps around for you. It's right out front," Malcolm said, and I looked at him in surprise.

"Thanks."

"And..." He held out his hand.

Frowning, I reached out and took something small and black from him, turning it over in my hand.

"Long range walkie," Malcolm explained just as I recognised it. "I'll keep another one on me. Use it. We need to get up there as soon as possible if he'll let us."

 _So that Dreyfus doesn't kill them all_. I finished in my head but kept my mouth shut.

"Thanks," I repeated, tucking it into a pocket. "I'll be in contact as soon as I can." We stood in silence for a moment before an idea occurred to me. "Malcolm, does anyone here know sign language?"

"Not that I know of. Why?"

I shook my head. "Nothing. Just a thought."

"I can still come with you," he said.

I gave a wry smile at his offer but shook my head. "No. This is on me. It's my responsibility. Least I can do, considering..."

"Good luck," he offered as I trailed off.

I nodded, grabbing my pack, and a coat from the back of the door. Malcolm followed me out of the door and I pulled it shut behind us.

.

.

Just as Malcolm had said there would be, a jeep was sitting just outside the doors. I threw my pack across onto the passenger seat, and fired it up quickly, pulling away with a glance in the rearview mirror. Malcolm was watching me go from in front of the gates, Dreyfus from directly above him.

As I sped down California Street, it seemed unbelievable to me that only yesterday morning I'd been travelling this same route with Denny. How could so much have happened so quickly? I slowed as I reached the intersection with Route 101, which would take me up and round to the bridge, then across to the woods but I didn't turn. I went straight across, heading towards Pacific Heights.


	5. A Kind Of Home

The house was much as I remembered it, though the plants were over-grown, ivy having taken over almost the entire front face. What little paint still showed was peeling. Standing by the jeep I looked up, all the way up, to the small round window at the top, waiting for a face to appear, as it always had before. But none did. So I stepped forward, climbing the three steps to the front door. It was locked, but gave easily to a firm shove, the old wood and rusted metal splintering easily before my shoulder. There was dust everywhere, covering the floor and the table that was skewed a little, as if someone passing in a great hurry had knocked it away from the wall. The silence was eerie. It felt like the house was watching me, aware of a presence after so long standing empty. I moved slowly through the rooms, remembering. The back door was open. I shook my head at that. I should have checked. Clearly the people who'd cleared the house had done so. Too late to un-break the front door now though. But I still felt a twinge of guilt. Turning away, I moved on, climbing the creaking stairs in slight trepidation.

On an piano, I found what I was looking for. Carefully, I picked up the picture that was lying face down, turning it over and smiling at the image of Will hugging a young Caesar. I took it with me as I left the room, pulling the door gently closed behind me. But I didn't leave at once. Instead, I pulled down the ladder that lead even further up and climbed into the attic. The decay was more noticeable here. One of the ceiling beams had fallen down, half blocking the room. I ducked under it, moving carefully through the debris until I reached the window. My fingers reached out, gently stroking one of the four arches across the glass.

Shaking off the nostalgia, I turned away, scanning the room. A chess set sat abandoned on the bed. In the corner, a pile of paper caught my eye, the green crayon standing out against the white. I smiled, looking down at the picture that could, conceivably, have been drawn by a child. Still smiling, I moved on, but though many relics littered the floor, none of them were quite what I'd been hoping for. I could remember how curious Caesar had been, investigating anything from my shoes to the kitchen cupboards. But I needed things that were smaller. That could travel.

Hopefully Denny had had more luck. My heart fell. If he'd even looked. Pushing the thought away, I descended back down through the house and padded through the kitchen, to the room just beyond where Will had shown me all his research, both on Caesar's heightened intelligence, and Mr Rodman's recovery. But there was nothing there. All of it, the notes, the scans, were gone. All that remained were little scraps of paper under pins in the board where the corners of a page had been left behind as the rest was ripped down. Despite knowing that it must have happened years ago, that no-one had been in the house in just as long, it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I was about to turn away, when a book caught my eye. Reaching down, I tugged it out from under a stack of others, noting the creases along the spine and the dog-eared pages. Laying the photo I'd taken on top, I clutched them both tightly as I turned away. Half the kitchen cupboards were hanging open from where the group had gone through and emptied them. I closed them all, and turned the lock on the back door before heading back through the house and slipping out the front, pulling the front door to the frame behind me.

Back in the jeep, I tucked the photo into my pack, but left the book on the seat beside it. Turning in the road, I headed back the way I'd come until I reached the 101, turning north and heading along out of the city. I almost smiled as I watched the needle creep upwards. Limits were dictated by the condition of the roads now, not the signs along the edge. What would my... I cut that thought off firmly and pushed my foot down a little further.

.

Slowing to a stop outside the checkpoint buildings, I clambered out of the jeep, and couldn't stop myself looking back towards the warehouse, looming on the hill above me. The doors stood open, but there was no one in sight. Turning away, I moved over to the nearest building and peered inside. My heart leapt. There was a crate on the floor just inside and sitting on top was an envelope with my name scribbled across it. I could have laughed with relief. Denny. He'd left me a note. Unable to say it to my face, he'd written it all down. All the conflict he was feeling, explained in full. It would hurt, to read how much pain I was causing him, but I knew it would end with a short sentence about how he still cared for me, begging me to come back safely. I scooped up the envelope in my hands, turning it over as carefully as if it was made of glass. I flipped open the flap. It was empty.

Staring down at the bottomless chasm of that envelope, I felt something die inside me. Slowly, I turned it back over. Nothing but my name. A terse label. Nothing more. Nothing at all. I still folded it up and put it in one of my pockets.

Taking a deep breath, I blinked my eyes clear and flipped the lid off the crate, kneeling down beside it to look over the contents. A lot of it wasn't any use to me. I picked things up, placing them on the floor to see what was beneath. A toy truck, jigsaw puzzle and Barbie doll were all relegated to the side. I considered a Rubik's cube for a moment, but ultimately discarded it. A toy gun... I stopped. That wasn't a toy gun. It was too heavy. And just below it, a magazine of bullets. I rocked back on my heels, staring at the two items in my hands. Carver had shot one of the apes. Taking a gun up there was not a good idea. And I already had two knives... Only the pain in my knees from their prolonged contact with the floor propelled me into action again. I put the gun down carefully on the floor, separate from the pile of toys, and continued rummaging through the box. In one of the bottom corners, I found it. A ball-and-cup. Perfect. Grinning, I pulled it out, stacking it with a tennis ball, and an orange hand-whistle. Everything else I piled back into the box and put the lid back on. Then, my trophies held securely in my arms, I crossed back to the passenger side of the truck and opened the door, shoving the ball-and-cup and the tennis ball into my back. The hand-whistle I put in another pocket. Never mind the internet, it was pockets that I would never be able to live without. The gun I shoved down the side of the pack before zipping it shut. Marching round to the other side, I paused for a moment, looking one last time back towards the warehouse, but all was still and quiet. I thought of the empty envelope, and of the gun. Then I turned away, slamming the car door behind me before setting off, across the bridge, towards Muir Woods.


	6. Some Welcome Mat

The mile and a half drive over the long bridge had never been shorter. In what felt like seconds, there was land rising on my left, and the bay was behind me. Working from memory, I drove carefully up the cracking roads, turning off onto the trail Ellie had indicated. The jeep jerked and rocked as it worked over the rough ground, where tree roots were doing their best to reclaim the land that had once been theirs.

After several more jarring minutes, I reached the end of the trail, and let the engine idle, then die. The silence was sudden and jarring after the constant rumble of the engine. I wanted nothing more than to fling open the car door and leap out, but I restrained myself, turning to other way and picking up the book I'd taken from Will's house.

 **Sign language for beginners**.

It had been old ten years ago, Will and Caesar quickly moving beyond the basics, but I was still a beginner, and though I didn't have much time, I was going to make an effort. I flipped straight to the index and scanned down, then turned to the appropriate page.

 **Form an "a" with your right hand. Rotate your hand on your chest using a couple of clockwise motions.**

I did so, drawing a circle on my chest with my fist, as shown in the little diagram. _Sorry._ I repeated the action. _Sorry._ Consulting the index again, I flipped to a page only a couple ahead.

 **Start with the fingers of your dominant hand near your lips. Your hand should be a "flat hand." Move your hand forward and a bit down in the direction of the other person.**  
I made the motion, then looked back at the instructions. Flat hand. I tried again. _Thank you._ I let my hand drop with a sigh.

 _You're going to make a fool of yourself,_ my little voice said. Scowling, I threw the book onto the dashboard.

"Yeah," I muttered aloud. "I know that." It took a bit of painful contortion to pull on my coat and pack whilst inside the car, but I managed without dislocating anything and was grateful I had when I jumped out. It wasn't raining now, but it had been, and the remnants were dripping gently from the leaves. The soggy ground underfoot made me doubly thankful for my thick steel toe capped boots as I trod in many puddles as I rounded the car and found the path Ellie had shown me. It was obvious it was the right one. The undergrowth had tried to grow across it and been trampled down by the group's passing. With a quick glance at the trees overhead, I set off, my long legs eating up the ground.

The sun had shifted visibly overhead when I found the spot. If I hadn't been looking so carefully, I might have missed it. Just off to the right of the trail, where it fell away down the slope, was a clear mark where a boot had slipped down, leaving a trail of bright brown between the green. Checking the sun quickly, I turned to the west. Uphill. Of course, it was uphill. With a sigh, I pushed on, forging a path through the forest, eyes alternating between the ground before me and the trees above.

.

.

It didn't take as long as I'd thought. The sun had just peaked in the sky when I came to a sudden halt, looking up. The huge nest of logs and sticks was at least 12 feet off the ground. That didn't bother me. It was the bones hanging beside it that made my heart jump a little in my chest. There were more off to the side, dangling off upright logs

"Some welcome mat Caesar," I muttered to myself. I couldn't stop glancing at the grey animal skull as I ducked under the nest and continued on. I was breathing hard, my thighs aching by the time I found them.

It was obvious. The huge logs, arranged so precisely, weren't exactly subtle. Walking more slowly now I picked my way along the tunnel. The ground was muddy and treacherous. Every other step seemed to land me in a puddle or stumbling from an unseen hole. But I pressed on until I heard movement behind me.

 _Showtime._ I thought to myself. The voice echoed a silent agreement, and I turned.

I'd been expecting a chimp. So at the sight of the huge gorilla, I took several hasty steps backwards. He was big. Really, really big. And then he stood up on his hind legs, and somehow got bigger. He was taller than me. And three times as wide. I swallowed, then forced myself to meet his eyes.

"Caesar," I said clearly. It's hard to tell a voice is shaking on only two syllables. Lucky for me. I took a breath and tried again.

"Please. I need to see Caesar." I was sure he could understand me. Those were not the eyes of an uncomprehending animal. But he still did nothing. I opened my mouth to try for a third time when he roared. I scrambled further back, my arm pressing against my hip, feeling the switchblade concealed there. It would have made a funny story, how I'd faced down a gorilla with nothing but a pocket knife, but it wasn't funny for me, especially not when he roared again, and again. There was a huffing response, and I turned. More gorillas, emerging from all sides and swaggering with utter confidence towards me.

" _Shit._ "

.

.

I kept my eyes on the ground. We were moving so fast that when I looked up, I immediately stumbled. So I kept my eyes on the ground. I could feel the gorillas close around me, see their huge feet out the corners of my eyes, hear their panting breaths. I'd fallen twice already, my hands stinging from their sharp impacts with rocks or rough tree bark. I thought I might have cut my face on the second one when it had scrapped across an upright log. It felt sore and painful, but I didn't bother raising my hand to check for blood. I was using all my limbs to try and balance. The sound level suddenly escalated as the ground under my feet flattened and I risked a glance up.

I tripped at once, but not from the ground. There were apes everywhere, but after seeing them all in the city, the sight of them ranged around here was not a shock. The home they had built, however, was phenomenal. I only had a second to stare in amazement at the huge structures before a rough shove from behind sent me crashing forward to my knees. I barely bit back a yelp of pain as my knees connected hard with the ground. Trying not to wince, I looked up and there he was.


	7. Koba

Caesar stood tall and proud on a outcrop of rock, staring down at me with an unreadable expression.

"Caesar," I said thickly. My jaw left thick and heavy on the right side where it had hit the log. Slowly, I climbed to my feet. One of the apes behind me barked angrily, raising its paw to shove me back down but Caesar snarled and they backed off at once. I watched warily as he descended down to stand before me.

"Caesar," I repeated.

"Jac."

My name sounded different in his rough voice. It sounded like a welcome and an admonition at the same time.

"I need to talk to you," I said. We stared at each other, then he turned away, waving me forwards with a careless arm. Letting out a breath I didn't realise I'd been holding, I scrambled after him. He let out a panting call as he climbed effortlessly back up the rock. Some of the other apes followed him, scuttling round to the side and leaping up.

I gained the top with far less grace but no further injuries, following Caesar along, wobbling on the uneven ground until he turned, sinking down to sit on the other side of what looked like the remnants of a fire. I shrugged the pack from my shoulders, setting it down next to me before reaching out a curious hand. Though the outer edge of the pile of ash was damp and cold, the middle still held a trace of warmth. Fire. Apes making fire. I shook my head at the part of my mind that rejected the idea.

Raising my eyes, I took in the group assembled around Caesar. Closest to me, on the left, an orang-utan peered at me with small, beady eyes. Next to him were two smaller chimps, one with several huge scars across the left side of his body, one straight across his face, just under his eyes. They looked old, several months at least, but were still vivid, the lack of fur startling to the eye. The pair were sitting a little further back, slightly out of the circle. To the right of Caesar was a grey chimp that looked virtually hairless, but with large, bulky muscles. A huge gorilla almost completed the small group. There was one more.

I carefully didn't look to my right, but I could feel Koba's eyes fixed on me. Instead, I kept my eyes on Caesar.

"You should not have come," Caesar said.

 _Encouraging start_ , my voice muttered. I couldn't help but agree with it.

"If it hadn't have been me, it would have been someone else," I said bluntly. "The city is running out of power. We've been scraping by for weeks now, but if it goes completely..." I tried not to imagine it. "There will be chaos." I met Caesar's sharp gaze. "People will get hurt. People will die." I gestured around us. "You've built up a home up here. We've been trying to build a home down there. And we'll lose it. We'll lose everything." The orang-utan on my left lifted his hands and signed something. Caesar huffed and signed back before returning his eyes to me. I took a breath and continued as if nothing had happened.

"There's a dam up here that could provide power to the city."

"Dam." The orang-utan's voice was a low, croaking rumble, but the single word was still clear.

"Yes, dam. The wall in the river. Holds the water back."

He nodded slowly.

"They, we, want to bring some people up here, to try and get it working again."

Caesar's eyes wandered away from me as he thought.

"You... work?"

I dropped my gaze before shaking my head. "I don't know how. It would be other people. The ones who came before." There was a hiss at that, and a chorus of angry gibbering. Hands flashed on all sides as the apes signed to one another. Caesar didn't join in, sitting in silence and stillness in the centre. I mimicked him, though my knees were starting to ache from my crouched position. Eventually, Caesar raised his own hands. The other apes fell silent, their eyes, like mine, following his quick movements. But they watched with comprehension. I just watched. Waiting. There was silence as Caesar finished and turned his bright eyes back to me.

"No guns," he growled.

I thought of the pistol in my pack and nodded slowly. "No guns," I agreed. "I'll make sure of it. Thank you."

There was movement from my right. Koba had risen to his feet, and there was a snarl on his face as he stalked closer. Caesar's face didn't change as he watched Koba approach. My eyes flickered between them as Koba signed. Even to my inexperienced eyes, his movements looked tense and angry. Caesar replied with unshakable calmness.

"Human... work?" Koba barked, then gestured furiously to the scar on his own neck. "Human work." He pointed out the old wound on his arm. "Human work!" He turned towards me, and I knew where this was going. "Human work." He growled, pointing to his ruined eye. I shook my head as I rose slowly to my feet, backing away.

"Not my work," I objected, keep my eyes on his knees, rather than risk meeting his eyes, giving ground as he advanced upon me. "Not me."

"Human!" Koba screamed, and he leapt.

.

.

There was no time. I barely thought of the knife on my leg, and would never have had enough time to draw it out. He was on me in a flash of dark fur and white teeth. I only just managed to throw up an arm between us, and as a result, when his teeth clamped down, they fastened over my forearm, rather than my throat. I would have screamed but my back slammed into the rock and all the breath was knocked out of me. Koba's weight was heavy on top of me, but before I could even think, instinct bore of years kicked in. Muscle memory.

I bucked my hips up and he wobbled a little, one foot slipping. At the same time, I bent my left leg up and twisted my whole body sideways, knocking him to the side as I flung my arm out, further pulling off his balance. He relinquished his hold on my arm, and I felt warm blood began to trail down my skin, but hardly noticed it. Completing the roll that I'd begun with the twist, I snapped both legs out, hard and fast. My boots connected solidly with his chest and he actually staggered backwards a second.

If he'd been angry before, it was nothing to the look in his eyes now. He stalked back towards me, and I knew he was coming to kill.

"Not my work," I whispered one last time. All around us, the air was full of hooting and screeching apes, but as Koba came ever closer, it was like we were in a single, perfect bubble of silence, untouchable by any other until a voice like thunder split the world apart.

"NO!" Caesar roared. Koba halted abruptly, though his eyes remained fixed on me. I didn't look away either, though I remained on the ground as Caesar stalked forwards to stand over Koba. I was the one to break our eye-contact, turning my shoulder to them both as I looked away, hugging my injured arm to my chest.

After a few seconds, I heard the scampering of feet as Koba knuckled away, and I let out a shaky breath. I watched from the corner of my eye as Caesar stood, probably watching him go. He let out a loud huff, and the crowd of apes slowly dissipated, drifting back into the shadows, though many threw glances at me before they did so. Caesar watched them for another couple of seconds, then turned towards me. I watched his feet come closer and stop a few steps away.

"Thanks," I said quietly, and he huffed.

"Hurt," he rumbled, and I looked down at my arm.

Though it was stinging and throbbing, I knew the pain hadn't kicked in fully yet. I made a non-committal noise at the back of my throat.

"It'll be okay," I said and slowly rose to my feet, though I kept my head ducked down, unwilling to meet his eyes. He followed a couple of steps behind as I moved over to my pack and pulled it open one-handed, digging out the first-aid kit and balancing it on my knee. Clenching my teeth, I peeled back the coat sleeve, and then pushed up my jumper. It wasn't as bad as I'd thought it would be. Two gashes on the top of my forearm, each about an inch long, but not that deep. On the underside, I had a symmetrical set of punctures from Koba's lower canines, two matching holes that slowly oozed blood, the deep red liquid running down to my elbow before dripping to the ground. With a sigh, I popped the top off a small bottle of antiseptic and squirted it over the wounds.

I had to bite my tongue, the yell coming out as a groan as my arm seared with pain. Panting slightly, I kept my eyes closed as I waited for the pain to diminish. It did, but only slightly. My adrenaline rush was wearing off. I ripped open a pack of gauze and held the white square firmly over the wounds. I couldn't help looking back over my shoulder, eyes searching all around but Koba seemed to have gone.

Settling myself more comfortably on the ground, I braced my arm between my knee and my chin as I ripped open a bandage with my other hand. I could feel the eyes of the other apes on me as I positioned it carefully on my arm and began to wind it around, covering the wound with several layers of the sticky white mesh.

That was really all I could do with it for now. There was no way I could stitch the gashes left-handed, and Ellie would probably accompany Malcolm up here. I could get her to do it if they didn't close by themselves. Carefully, I released the pressure on my arm, twisting it gently. My fingers felt a little stiff, but hopefully, that was just from the pressure. Pulling my jumper back down, I sighed at the ragged holes in the material. I might be able to sew it back up at some point. Dismissing the issue, I raised my eyes. Caesar was still watching me, as was the orang-utan, and the two younger apes, though the pair sat further back.

"So," I said as if there had been no interruption. "No guns."

The orang-utan let out a deep rumble in his throat, that I hoped was from amusement, rather than anger. Behind him, the pair of younger chimps was signing to each other, the scarred one reaching out to shove his friend sideways. I ignored them, turning my eyes back to Caesar, who had looked away from me, scanning his gaze around the home he had built here.

Finally, he nodded. I let out a breath, then pulled my pack towards me, digging out the radio Malcolm had given me and switching it on. There was a small burst of static as I extended the antenna.

"Jac to Malcolm." Releasing the button, I waited, eyes fixed on the rock at my feet. My heart was racing, though the apes looked calm. I was about to call again when there was a hiss, and then a voice issued from the little black handset.

"Malcolm to Jac. How's it's going? Over."

I let out a nervous breath. "Good. You can come up and work on the dam. Over." There were several long moments of silence, during which I mentally filled in a bit of celebration at the other end.

"That's great news Jac, we'll be heading out first thing tomorrow morning. Over."

I could hear the smile in his voice.

"One condition. No guns. I repeat, no guns. Acknowledge. Over."

"No guns. Got it. I'll pass the word along. Over."

"Okay. I'll meet you tomorrow morning at the end of the track. Go the same way you did last time, you'll see the jeep I brought up. Wait for me there. Over."

"Roger that, we'll be there. I'll leave this radio with Dreyfus, so we can contact him." There was a slight pause. "Are you okay up there? Over."

I did not look at my arm. "Yeah, all fine. See you tomorrow. Over and out." There was a couple of seconds of static, then I flicked the radio off, dropping it back into my bag. Caesar and I shared a glance, then the orang-utan heaved himself to his feet. He signed briefly to Caesar, then turned, and moved away with a deliberate grace. Caesar shifted as if he too was going to leave, but I knew there was something I had to do first.

"Caesar," I said, keeping my voice low. His eyes flicked to me as I carefully unzipped the top of my pack and tilted it towards him. The gun was clearly visible at the top, stuck down the side of my spare jumper. For a couple of seconds, he didn't do anything, just looked. Then he reached out a careful hand. I let out the breath I'd been holding. I'd been expecting that. It was only fair that I stick to the rules too. And I would surrender the weapon if that was what he needed in order for us to work on the dam. But as his hand reached the top of the pack, he did not take the gun out but pulled the flap closed again, hiding it from view. Shocked, I looked up into his stunning eyes.

"Quietly." He murmured, and I nodded.

 _Keep it, but quietly_. I could do that.

Caesar stood up and knuckled slowly away.

I watched him go in silence, thinking hard.


	8. Monkeying Around

I watched Caesar's retreating back in surprise, considering. _Quietly_. As I turned away, I caught a flash of movement. I waited, watching the thicket of logs. Again, a flash of pale skin and big eyes. Trying not to smile, I looked away, rummaging in my pack until I found what I'd sent Denny looking for. Re-zipping the pack tightly, I perched myself on a rock, and held the ball and cup as steadily as I could in my left hand, and began to play with myself, tossing it up and trying to get the ball to land inside the indent.

It didn't take long for the curiosity to become too much. The youngsters who'd been watching couldn't resist. I was aware of them, dark shapes from the corner of my eyes, but didn't look round, focusing on my game.

I'd hoped this would happen. Caesar had been just the same, unable to stop himself investigating anything new. Only when I felt a slight pressure on my right knee did I finally look down. Five young chimps were only inches away from me, one of them standing up, and peering over my knee for a better look. My leg wobbled as he hopped up, but adjusted quickly to the new weight. I finally stopped playing, holding the toy loosely, my wrist curling slightly to put it in reach of the small ape, without moving toward him too much.

He took it without the slightest bit of hesitation, his tiny hands turning it over as he plonked himself down, leaning back against my body as if I were nothing more than another bit of the forest. I was truly smiling now, even though I could feel the stares of many adults on us from all around. Emboldened by their companion's success, the other youngsters came closer and were soon poking and climbing over me. I had to suck in a breath when one of them grabbed hold of my wounded arm, but I didn't make any other sound as the small ape swung easily up to balance on my shoulder, and began picking through my hair.

The first one was still playing with the ball and cup, turning it over and even trying to imitate my movement of tossing the ball upwards, though he hadn't quite got the knack of the motion. Bored with failure, he huffed, dropping the toy with just enough warning for me to be ready to catch it. Standing up, one foot on each of my legs, he stared at my face for a long time. I kept utterly still, my eyes on his chest. Eventually, he reached out with one small hand and poked my cheek. I winced, seeing a flash of red on his finger as he took it away again. Blood.

Raising my own hand to my face, I explored the skin, feeling the graze, and the unpleasant sensation of the drying blood beneath it. My eyes slipped away from the little face inches from mine, and I met the gaze of one of the adult chimps I'd seen earlier, the one with the scars across his face and chest. His face was a little scrunched up as he watched the youngsters playing on and around me. He kept his distance but was so clearly uncomfortable that I looked away, dropping my eyes, and glancing sideways as Caesar returned to my side.

"I should go," I murmured, very quietly. "Sleep, then come back tomorrow."

Caesar let out a low rumble. "Stay," he said.

I looked away. "I'm not sure that's a good idea," I said carefully.

Caesar climbed to his feet and moved off to the right, waving me after him.

I still had the babies crawling all over me, and hesitated, not wanting to push them off.

Caesar looked back when I didn't follow and, seeing my predicament, let out a bark, which sent the little ones scattering. Adults scooped them up as soon as they were a respectable distance from me, but one of them ran straight to Caesar, who paused long enough for it to crawl up onto his back.

Grabbing my pack I pushed to my feet and followed them both towards a huge tree, enhanced with many logs around it, climbing up into the sky in an impressive spiral.

"He's yours?" I asked, gesturing to the baby on Caesar's back, and the chimp gave a grunt that I took to be an affirmation. Stopping under the shadow of the lowest logs, Caesar sat down, waving an arm around him, and pointing upwards.

"My home," he said. "Stay here. Safe." His eyes flickered towards my pack and I could suddenly feel the cold weight of the gun. But there was something else in there too.

Sitting down with my back against the tree, I dug through the pack in silence, careful to keep the gun concealed, and found what I was looking for. I passed the photograph to Caesar wordlessly. He took it, staring down at the moment between himself and Will, forever captured and preserved on the paper. Neither of us broke the silence, and I wasn't sure how long we might have sat there if we hadn't heard the roar.

The sound was distant, only the echoes reaching us, but the whole camp went silent at once, the apes all turning at the sound. The one with scars across his chest came knuckling up to us at once, and Caesar passed his son off to him, getting to his feet as he stared off into the distance, over the wall.

I didn't dare to breathe. There was no other sound for a minute, and I started to relax, but another roar, quieter, but still clearly audible, split the silence, sending me to my feet at once, body tense and shaking.

Caesar gripped my arm tightly enough for it to hurt, and my lip twitched at the pain but my eyes didn't falter in their scan of the treetops, as if some clue would be found there. It took several moments for the apes to relax.

Caesar let go, but I didn't sit back down until he huffed up at me.

"What was that?" I asked, sinking slowly back down.

"Bear," Caesar shrugged, and I choked.

"Excuse me?"

"Bear."

I stared at him.

He avoided my gaze until I remembered myself and blinked, looking away. "Jesus..." I breathed. "You're..." I gritted my teeth, biting back the words. "You are careful, aren't you?" Caesar's eyes flicked up to my other side, and I looked round to the scarred ape, averting my eyes when I realised the significance of the marks.

"Careful," Caesar repeated quietly in his deep rough voice.

"Sorry," I murmured, knowing they could take care of themselves, but my thoughts were running wild.

Bears, in Cali? There hadn't been bears here for God-only-knew how many years, and surely the sudden lack of humanity wasn't a reason for them to migrate down here from others parts? Unless...

I looked around at the apes, remembering where a large majority of them had come from. It wasn't that much of a stretch to think that the bears had escaped the zoos as well, especially once the main electricity had gone out.

Caesar moved suddenly, and I looked up, realising that the little flickers in the corner of my eye must have been him signing. The other younger ape was knuckling away as Caesar pushed himself up as well.

"Sleep," he rumbled in his deep voice.

I gave him a doubtful look. "Are you sure?" I asked bluntly. "I can stay out there. It's not a problem." I was half lying, wary of the bears that were apparently roaming these woods.

"Safe." He gestured to the underside of the huge curling tree, where rocks and vines created a nearly private cave. "Sleep," Caesar repeated. "Tomorrow, early."

I nodded.

"Thank you, Caesar. For everything."

He just huffed and moved away, swinging over my head with ease into the tree above. I watched his shadow move away before retreating into my little corner, crouching with my back to the wall as I shoved my pack in beside me and looked out across the ape's home, quieter now that the sun was going down.

On the far side of the raised rock, two eyes stared back at me, one of them white and ruined. I half-rose to my feet, but Koba was gone almost instantly, and I sank back down with a sigh, wondering how much sleep I would actually get.

.

.

The answer was not much. Although exhaustion from the climb the previous day made me drop off quickly, I woke several times during the night, either from bad dreams or just general wariness, occasionally reaching out for Denny before remembering the severity of his rejection. There was no way for me to tell the time, but after nine years, I'd learned to rise with the sun, and felt the difference when I came awake properly, though I was still reluctant to leave the relative warmth of my blanket for the cold darkness beyond.

It took a lot of pep talks before I crawled out, hunching in the gloom as I rolled up the blanket before shoving it down to the bottom of my pack, my hand encountering two cold items on the way. In the blinding darkness, I pulled out the gun.

Caesar had told me to keep it, and it wouldn't be of much use in the bag if I had to make people back off.

I pulled open the Velcro seal to the false pocket on the outside of my right thigh and squirmed around in the darkness, shifting the holster of my knife until I managed to attach the soft mould that would hold the gun and slide it home. The clip, I put into a pocket on my left leg, just above the knee. Separate, but easily reachable.

I checked that everything else was packed up properly, shrugged off my coat long enough to scramble into an extra jumper, and pulled out a cereal bar, scarfing it down before any curious apes could come and try and steal it. I didn't know what ingredients it contained that might affect them. Then I sat, and watched, and waited.

.

.

The apes seemed to come awake all at once, some instinct we'd long since forgotten bringing them all to consciousness at the same time. I was amused by the sight of the odd one here and there that dragged their feet, snarling at those who came too close to them. Clearly, they weren't all early-birds.

Everything moved fast, the same way the human colony had learned not to dawdle. It was almost enough to make me miss the days of lollygagging, taking 15 minutes to make sure I had everything before leaving the house for anything. Now everything and anything were both gone.

It was a couple more minutes before I caught sight of Caesar in the crowd. He only had to glance in my direction and I came to my feet at once, slinging my pack over one shoulder as I scrambled down the rock. I somehow missed where the horses materialised from but took a step back from them all the same as the large animals tossed their heads, quietening under the skilled handling of their ape riders.

Two of them went trotting out of the gate, followed by Caesar and the group I was coming to recognise as his inner council, me hurrying along in their midst at Caesar's wave, picking a spot beside the orangutan, who looked down at me once with his sharp yet soft eyes.

It was mildly awkward for a few minutes until I realised I was the tensest of us and tried to relax, watching the passing forest rather than dwell on my companions. The time passed faster after that, the apes directing their horses on paths clearly familiar to them, finally slowing to a halt overlooking the end of the dirt track where I'd left my jeep.

It was alone, but I hid my nervousness as I left the group of apes, bounding down the slope to the track. As soon as I focused, I could hear the noise of another engine, quiet at first but growing offensively loud in the quiet woods. I glanced back up to where the apes remained at the top of the hill. Wondering if they were hoping to make a dramatic entrance, I stifled a laugh. It was only a couple more seconds before the new truck pulled up. I could see Malcolm behind the wheel, giving me a look as he switched off the entrance and climbed out, trying and failing to remain casual as he glanced around, then came forward.

"Hey," he said, eyes darting in every direction.

"Hey." I grinned at his nervousness, taking in the rest of the group.

Ellie was there, as I'd hoped, but I was surprised to see Malcolm's son, Alex. Carver's presence made me grimace, but I knew why he had to come, so I let it go, and nodded to Kemp, no doubt brought along for heavy lifting. I'd spoken to him a fair amount, as he was friends with Denny, and when he didn't return my silent greeting, except with a silent glare, I wondered gloomily if Denny had been spreading my secret. Foster brought up the rear, eyes on the trees behind him.

"You okay?" Ellie asked, coming closer and giving my shoulder a squeeze.

I nodded, too tired to bother smiling, and turned back the other way, leading them up to beside my jeep and raising an eyebrow at Caesar, who looked us all over for a moment, then made the descent on horseback, the others following. I could feel the intensity of the others' attention as they watched the apes approach, and I glanced sideways to take in their expressions.

Movement beyond them drew my gaze into the trees and I saw one of the apes who'd left earlier looking back at me. I swallowed, wondering exactly what Caesar had been expecting, before turning back to the ape himself.

He stopped a little way away, eyes roving over the humans, but didn't dismount. I couldn't help wondering if that was because he didn't want to have to get back on, or if it was so he remained taller than us. No one said anything, and I hid a sigh, knowing I was going to end up being the bridge between the two groups, at least to begin with.

"Caesar, this is Malcolm, Ellie, Alex, Carver, Kemp, and Foster," I said, pointing each one out as I went down the line of names. "Everyone, this is Caesar. He's agreed to let us work on the dam... within conditions."

Malcolm nodded at once, though Carver let out a tut that was less than subtle, and Ellie glared at him.

"Thank you," Malcolm said, his voice practically dripping with earnestness.

Caesar eyed him for a moment, then nodded, before glancing back at me.

I joined my head to all those already bobbing about.

"Got everything? Daylight's wasting," I prompted the others. Alex and Kemp went back for more bags, and I lead the way up into the trees, falling into place behind Caesar, who lead the way along towards the dam.

We'd been walking for only a few minutes when his horse moved over to the side of the trail, and he glanced back at me. Taking the silent cue, I sped up, moving alongside him, and leaving the quietly chattering humans behind.

"You trust them?" Caesar asked, his low voice very quiet.

I resisted the urge to look back. "For the most part," I said. "But I know they got the message, and Malcolm is alright. I'm sure he will have made them stick to it."

Caesar made a non-committal noise.

"They... We, need you," I said, looking up to meet his bright eyes. "That goes a long way towards making people follow the rules."

"And afterwards?"

I looked away and my voice was low when I replied. "If they try anything, I swear, I will do everything in my power to stop them."

I knew it was true the moment I said it. The apes had built something incredible up here, and even more than that, they had just as much right to life as we did.

If anyone tried to change that, either one of the ones walking behind me now, or Dreyfus with the whole colony no doubt following him, I could not, _would not_ , stand aside and let it happen.

We remained silent the rest of the way to the river, where we all paused, looking up at the dam above us. It didn't look good, covered in patches of green algae and featherings of cracks, but at least it was still standing. That meant we had a chance to get it working, or I hoped so anyway.


	9. Wounds, and Wounds

"Jac, give us a hand," Malcolm puffed, and I darted over, feet clanging on the metal mesh, to shove my shoulder alongside his on the underside of a large slab of concrete, hissing silently as I took some of the weight. Together we heaved and the huge block teetered for a second before falling the other way with a resounding clang. Malcolm stretched his back out, groaning as he looked around.

"We're losing the light," he said, to the group at large. "I reckon it's time to head out. There's not much more we can do here."

"We've only been going for an hour," Foster objected, but Malcolm shook his head.

"No point draining the batteries on the flashlights, and it'd be dangerous with all this rubble around. We'll come back early tomorrow."

I waited until the camp was set up, fire burning, tents assembled, before I sidled up to Ellie.

"D'you bring your first aid bag?" I asked quietly.

"Always," she said, eyes worried as she looked at me. "What's wrong? Are you hurt?"

I shrugged, though in truth I was sure my arm had been bleeding on and off throughout the day. "Not sure how bad it is. I washed it out, but could need stitches."

"Oh my god, why didn't you say something?" she said. "Sit! I'll get my stuff."

I moved to a fallen tree, a little way back from the fire, and sat, gritting my teeth as I rolled up my sleeve of my sweater. The gauze pads were indeed stained red, but not as severely as I'd expected. I began to pick at the edge of the tape as Ellie returned, sitting down opposite me, and eyeing my covered wound.

"When did this happen?" she asked.

"Yesterday afternoon," I admitted, and she looked stunned. "It's not a big deal," I added hastily. "It's fine." A corner of the tape came free and I took in a breath, holding it as I ripped the gauze away. There was a moment of silence as I waded up the gauze in my free hand, not looking at my right arm.

"Jeez," Ellie whispered. "Jac, is this a _bite_?"

"Yeah," I said, not looking at her. "Does it need stitching?"

"What happened?" Ellie demanded, and movement behind her made me look up. Malcolm had emerged from his tent, and was looking over at us, his attention drawn by the emotion in Ellie's voice, and he came over to stand behind her, looking down at my arm. His eyes went wide, then narrow.

"It's not a big deal," I said, trying to sound forceful. They exchanged a look. "It's fine," I said. "It's nothing. We're up here, that's what you wanted, that's what mattered."

"And this is the cost?" Malcolm demanded, though thankfully keeping his voice low as he dropped to a crouch. "Did he do this to you?"

" _No_!" I said vehemently, without needing to ask who he meant.

"This isn't okay," Malcolm said, and I pulled my arm back, dropping off the tree to my knees as I leant towards him.

"You make a fuss about this, and I swear to God, this will be the least of your worries," I snarled. "He stopped it, okay. He _stopped_ it." We stared at each other for a moment. "Just let it go. Please," I begged. Malcolm looked away, then back.

"We're going to talk about this later," he said firmly, then stood and walked away. I let my head hang forwards as I released a shaky breath.

"Come on," Ellie said, standing up, and I looked up at her. "I need more light to do this," she said, nodding her head towards the fire. I looked over at the group gathered around it. "They won't be able to see what it is," Ellie said. "And I won't tell them, if that's really what you want."

"Thank you," I muttered quietly as I stood. We relocated to the fireside, drawing many looks from the others.

Foster was the one to speak up. "Something happen?"

"Just an accident," I smiled, though it was more of a grimace as Ellie began to work. "We're a long way from Kansas." There was the obligatory round of chuckles, but they died quickly.

"Damn it!" Ellie hissed, and I looked up at the canopy, rather than see what she was doing. Feeling it was bad enough. "What I wouldn't give for some proper light again," Ellie muttered.

"That's the scary thing about them," Foster mussed, and I looked down to see him following my earlier gaze up into the trees. "They don't need power, light, heat. Nothing. That's their advantage. That's what makes them stronger."

"They never started relying on things," I said. "They're how we might once have been. Wild."

"Malcolm, I'm thinking one of us should stand guard tonight," Kemp said, and I looked at him. He still hadn't said a word to me, but none of the others were treating me with added suspicion. Had Denny only told a few people my secret? Surely they couldn't keep it from spreading for long.

"With what?" Foster objected. "We weren't allowed to bring guns."

"If they wanted us dead, we'd be dead already," Malcolm said quietly.

"Maybe they're just taking their time," Carver muttered.

"They don't want us dead," I said wearily, though Koba's face flashed through my mind.

"Really? Cos they killed off half the planet already," Carver said, his voice rising.

"Come on," Ellie scoffed, without looking round.

"What?"

"You can't honestly blame the apes," she said.

"Who the hell else am I gonna blame?" Carver demanded. "It was a _Simian Flu_."

"It was a virus," Ellie said, looking over at him at last, "created by scientists in a lab." I kept my eyes straight ahead, though I saw Malcolm glance at me in the corner of my eye. "The chimps they were testing on didn't really have a say in the matter." I shifted, dropping my eyes to the fire.

"Oh spare me the hippie-dippie bullshit," Carver scoffed. "You're telling me you don't get sick to your stomach at the sight of them? Huh?" Ellie didn't reply and I closed my eyes. "Didn't you have a little girl?"

"Carver, that's enough," Malcolm said angrily, as Ellie swiped a cloth over my arm and sat back, not looking up.

"How'd she die?" Carver kept pushing.

"That's enough!" Malcolm repeated.

"Or your wife for that matter," Carver changed targets, and I stood up.

"Carver, you'd better shut up before I kick your ass," I growled. "And I'll tell you something; right now, I get sick to my stomach at the sight of you!"

Carver stood up too. "Whose side are you on?" he demanded. "Ours or theirs? Cos you ran off real quick. Got something you want to tell us?"

"I've taken you down before, I'll do it again," I threatening him quietly, holding his gaze. "This isn't us or them. They're not your enemy."

There was a moment of silence, when I thought I'd won, that he would sit back down and keep quiet for the rest of the evening. I was wrong.

"Yes, they are," Carver said. "And if you want to side with them, so are you."

This silence was louder, stronger. I felt Kemp's suspicious eyes on me, Malcolm's wary gaze. I turned and left.

The trees were more welcoming than the people, sheltering me, hiding me, making me forget all that had once, or might have one day, been. It didn't last long though, quick footsteps coming up behind me. I turned, not wanting to let Carver sneak up on me, but it was Malcolm. He hesitated at my sudden turn, then came forwards again as I relaxed, walking away, but letting him catch up.

"What happened to your arm?" he asked.

"Nothing."

He grabbed my wrist, pulling me to a halt. "My son is up here," he said. "People are relying on us. If one of them is dangerous, I need to know."

I looked into his earnest, angry eyes, and sighed, turning and continuing my aimless walk. "It's fine. Personal history. Caesar will keep him in line." There was a moment of silence. "Has Denny been talking?" I asked, before I could think better of it.

"What?" Malcolm asked, frowning at me. "I don't think so. Talking about what? Why?"

I shook my head. "Kemp won't look at me. And Denny was listening. He knows what I did."

"This isn't your fault," Malcolm said hesitantly.

"It's more my fault than it is the apes'," I said coldly.

He hesitated. "I don't think he's been telling people. It would have spread before we'd left," he said eventually.

I nodded, taking a few more steps as he stopped, before half turning, but not looking back at him.

"Come on, we should get some sleep," he said.

"Go on, I'll come in a second," I said. He didn't object, but he stood and watched as I kept walking, shoving my hands into my pockets. I didn't stop until I hit the river, watching the water run past. Slipping my hand into my false pocket, I felt along the strap encircling my thigh, checking the knife and the gun hooked onto it.

 _Ours or theirs? Us or them?_ Whose side was I on? Where should I be? What if the answer was both? What if the answer was neither?

* * *

 **A/N: Thanks to everyone who's following this, it warms my heart every time I get a notification! Apologies for any typos, this is mostly first draft. The new trailer for War gave me a much needed kick.**


	10. Lighting the Fuse

The next day dawned cold and grey, fog making the trees into ominous shapes around us. It burned away quickly as the sun rose and by the time everyone was up, visibility had much improved. There was the occasional yawn as we all trooped off towards the dam, Malcolm quizzing Carver at the front while I hung back, lost in my thoughts and dragging my feet. Ellie occasionally looked back at me, but I avoided her gaze until I saw her stiffen out the corner of my eye. Looking up, I found her gaze fixed on something behind me, and whirled around.

I took several seconds to search the apes' faces for a scarred face and white eye, but Koba was not to be seen. Relaxing, I lowered my eyes to the horses' hooves as they carried the apes towards us. I heard Ellie trip, not looking where she was going and kept my face down to hide my smile.

Caesar drew level with me and slowed his horse's pace. I glanced up, wondering why, and was surprised to see a much smaller face peering around Caesar's elbow. He'd brought his son along, the inquisitive little eyes looking all around. I just had time to smirk before he'd turned to stare at me, and then made a huge leap. I gasped in shock, but he knew what he was doing, landing perfectly on my shoulder, albeit with one hand grabbing my hair to steady himself.

"Hello, munchkin," I chuckled quietly. "Whacha doing here?" He just hooted in response, swinging around, snuffling over my backpack before moving on to the other shoulder, to see what he could see from there. I glanced up at Caesar, but, though he was watching, he didn't seem overly concerned.

"Just don't go falling off," I warned the little one mildly, as he crawled down my arm, "you'll get us both into trouble."

I let him romp around as he liked, trying to make sure he didn't fall down and glanced up once to see Ellie looking back at us, the grin on her face making it clear that I wasn't the only one with a weakness for his cuteness. He retreated back to his father as the trees opened up, and the dam came into view. I exchanged one last glance with Caesar, then lengthened my stride to catch up with the others, and hear the plan of action for the day.

.

.

I didn't much like the plan, failing to see how blowing anything up would make it any better. I was half convinced that the whole dam would come down around us.

Malcolm, Carver, Foster, and Kemp had all disappeared head first down a small tunnel, Carver going on and on about an 'impassable blockage'. I was crouched at the entrance, gloved hands braced on a thick metal cable, ready to pull them back out once they'd set the charge. I could hear Ellie and Alex's quiet voices above me but ignored them as best as I could.

The vibrations along the cable stopped and I tensed, listening hard, but their voices were too distorted by the tunnel for me to make out any words. The cable jerked suddenly in my hands, twice. I reaffirmed my grip as it began to slowly recoil back towards me. Adding my weight to the line, I leant back, using my height as a lever against the wall, pulling the cable back through its pulley.

"Whoa!" The shout reached me and I halted my efforts, dropping back into a crouch. I could see Kemp's feet now, his eyes as he turned his head back to face me. "That's all the wire we've got," he called back. "We're going to set it off from here."

I grimaced, but pulled out of the tunnel, glancing up. "Brace yourselves," I warned the two above me, as I retreated, putting my hands over my ears and turning my face away. For a few seconds, nothing happened. Then the world exploded in sound, my face was thrown against the wall, and a cloud of dust embraced me from behind.

.

.

I managed to open my eyes as Ellie reached the bottom of the ladder. One of my ears was ringing and my cheek hurt from where it had smacked against the wall, but other than that, I was okay.

I could stand up, at least, and only swayed a little. Ellie looked over at me, but I deflected the unnecessary concern by lurching over to the tunnel entrance, half blocked by debris. Taking a breath, I immediately started coughing on the dust hanging in the air. Ellie and Alex did the shouting for me until I could breathe again. Alex was halfway into the tunnel, but I pulled him back.

"Hey!" His face was angry.

"Too dangerous," I wheezed, "we need to clear this first."

"That's my dad in there!"

"And he won't thank you for getting stuck too! Come on!"

Together, we heaved at the rock. Again, he tried to push forwards and again I pulled him back.

"I'm taller than you!" I snapped. "I can reach further."

His jaw clenched, but there was no arguing that point.

"Pull me back out," I instructed them both, then dived down the tunnel.

.

.

The dust was unbelievably thick, and my eyes ran as they tried to clear themselves. I slithered forwards on my elbows, over the metal cable I'd been pulling on, trying to remember how deep in Kemp had been when he'd called back to me. Surely it hadn't been this far...

My reaching hand found something hard and I explored with my fingers, blind in the dust. A booted foot, leading to an ankle. Bracing myself on my knees, I heaved. The body slid a couple of inches, and I groaned silently. Baring my teeth, I pulled again, and the legs I was gripping suddenly jerked to life, kicking out against me. Gasping in pain as a heel connected with my arm, I shuffled backwards.

"Kemp! I cried hoarsely, and the motions slowed. "It's okay. Crawl backwards. Can you feel anyone in front of you?"

There was a pause, then some coughing. "Foster," Kemp choked out. "Foster was in front of me. Where are our lights?"

I scrambled back towards the entrance. "Have we got more flashlights?" I called behind me and heard Ellie and Alex jump to find some through my one ear that wasn't ringing.

"Here!" There was a flash of light across the tunnel. I dropped to the floor, rolling onto my side.

"Chuck it up!" I said, and the light flew towards me, skidding a little past me on the floor. I grabbed it and went forwards. Most of the light reflected off the fine dust that wasn't quite settled from the air, but eventually, there was a glimpse of a black boot.

"Here," I said, coughing a little more. A hand came snaking back down, and I passed the light up.

"Well at least it didn't all come down on us," Kemp said.

"Don't say that when we're still in here," I groaned.

He gave what might have been a laugh, but turned into coughing instead. "Foster?" he called after he'd stopped coughing. "Talk to me, man."

"Kemp?" The call came from further up the tunnel than I'd expected, the voice hoarse.

"Malcolm!" Kemp shouted back. "You okay?"

"Think so. There's a lot of rock down here. I can't see Carver."

My heart thumped once.

 _Good riddance?_ A voice inside me suggested, but I shut it down.

"Foster should be behind you," Kemp called down, and I heard Malcolm shifting around.

There was a groan and a sudden spate of coughing.

"Oops," Malcolm said. "Sorry. You okay?"

Another groan in answer and a dark shape rolled around ahead of me. More light spilt out into the tunnel. Apparently Foster had fallen on top of one of the flashlights. I could see Malcolm further up the tunnel, and several large shadows of rock past him. The dust was settling down.

"Dad?" Twisting around, I saw Ellie and Alex peering into the tunnel.

"I'm okay," Malcolm called back past us. "Everyone out, we need more space in here."

I began to squirm backwards at once, eventually tumbling back into space and light and air. The relief was enough to make me gasp, even as the room suddenly darkened. Squinted up, I saw three dark, furry faces looking down at us. I let my head flop back down, and let out a breath.

.

.

Leaving the apes to help clear the blockage, Alex and I made our way carefully back through the dam, assessing the damage. The blast had clearly rocked the whole structure; several pieces of fiddly wiring had come apart and the walls were cracked in places, falling down in others. When we got to a tunnel where the ceiling was still cascading dust, we shared a look and turned back, catching up with the others as they made their way back down to the water, Carver limping, supported between Foster and Kemp. Alex immediately split off to go and help Ellie work on his leg, and I sat down on the pile of driftwood that had gathered here from the river.

I rubbed my face, my fingers coming away stained with dust and blood, as I reported on the damage to the other three men. Malcolm's face was dark as he listened, watching Ellie work, occasionally glancing over towards the watching apes. I'd been silent for several seconds before Malcolm walked over to Caesar, who watched him impassively from atop his horse, his little son entrusted to the arms of the ape with slashes across his face and chest next to him.

"Thank you," Malcolm said to Caesar. "You saved our lives."

I smiled, looking away.

"There's a lot of debris to clear now. We might need a little more time."

My eyes flicked back, watching Caesar's reaction.

"How long?" he asked, and my heart leapt in hope.

This could be the start of something more than just a one-off repair trip. We could actually work together, with the apes. My eyes were drawn by the little Munchkin wiggling out of the apes of the other ape, shimmying easily down the horse's leg.

I stood up, ready to intercept him, but he wasn't coming towards me. Instead, he leapt easily up onto Ellie's shoulder, his would-be keeper watching anxiously from a few feet back. Caesar slid off his horse too, moving more slowly to stand beside Malcolm, watching his son hop down into Alex's lap.

I smiled, watching the little ape charm them as thoroughly as he'd charmed me.

More of what might come perhaps? Our children interacting with theirs?

The dream was shattered quickly, as dreams always are. The munchkin, having explored his fill of Alex's trainers, was now investigating the rest of the area, while Ellie finished bandaging Carver's leg.

He gripped my knee, looking straight up at me, then moving on to the toolbox, hands moving quickly over the pliers and screwdrivers. I took a step closer, supervising, and Carver looked up at my movement.

"Hey!" He lunged upright and I flinched at the unprovoked movement, but he wasn't coming at me. "Hey!" he shouted again, swiping at the little ape with his coat. "Get out of there!"

I opened my mouth to shout angrily back, the little ape shrieking as it dodged Carver's wild attacks.

There was a blur of movement, and one of the other apes was there, shouldering Carver aside. He fell, rolling away and the ape turned, shoving Kemp backwards too.

I jumped away, hands up and empty, as I backed off. There was a little pressure on my leg and then Munchkin leapt up onto my back, hiding in my hair.

Carver regained his feet, lurching across to the toolbox he'd been so desperate to protect and snatching something out.

I thought it was an iron bar until he turned, and I saw the truth.

The short barrelled shotgun flashed menacingly as Carver turned it on the ape who'd pushed him.

I didn't stop to gape, didn't stop to cry out, didn't stop to think.

Making sure of Munchkin's grip on my back, I dug both hands down my trousers as I stepped forwards.

"I'll kill you!" Carver was screaming wildly, all his attention fixed on the hissing ape, and I stepped up behind him as calmly as if I'd done this a hundred times before.

"Stop." The word was harsh but clear on the air, but I knew it was the feel of the barrel of the gun against his head, more than the word, that made Carver freeze.

"Jac..." Malcolm said, but I ignored him, pressing harder on the back of Carver's head.

"If this was a movie, I would be cocking the gun now, pulling the hammer back, turning off the safety, something to show you I was serious," I said grimly. "But it's not, and that's passed us. The next thing I do will be to pull the trigger. Give it to me. Now!"

He hesitated.

I moved the barrel of the pistol to his shoulder and put my finger on the trigger.

"Alright! Alright!" he cried, lowering the shotgun and holding it out slowly behind him. I took it and backed away at once, flicking the safety back on the pistol and shoving it in my pocket. Caesar stalked past me, holding out his hand for the shotgun. I gave it to him, pulling Munchkin round into my arms as I backed away further.

There was silence as Caesar looked over the shotgun.

"Said... no... guns!" he growled.

There was a second when every pair of human eyes flicked to me, but then Caesar lowered the gun, holding it in competent hands as he pointed it straight at Malcolm.

Everyone flinched, hands fluttering uselessly. I swallowed.

He wouldn't actually... would he? Surely not. But it would be my fault if he did. I'd given him the gun.

Caesar turned the gun onto Ellie and Alex.

"No!" Malcolm cried, as they both stepped backwards, faces paling. "Please. I didn't know!"

"Caesar, no," I said, but my voice was weak.

My heart beat again as he turned his focus, but paused as he swung the gun towards Kemp and Foster.

"Caesar!" I cried, louder but more hopeless.

He gave no indication he'd heard me, but after a second he raised the gun, giving it one last contemptuously look before stalking away from us all to fling it into the river.

He didn't look at me as he walked back towards the horses, but he held out a hand, and I delivered Munchkin to him without hesitating, looking aside as he passed.

"Humans leave, now!" he snarled as he passed Malcolm. I flinched but didn't say anything. There was nothing to say.

There was silence as the apes mounted up and left, then everyone looked at me. I didn't need to meet their eyes to feel their anger.


	11. Explosion

I walked quickly, not looking back, ejecting the clip of my pistol and de-chambering the round I'd threatened Carver with. Footsteps threatened me from behind, but I lengthened my stride, trying to pretend I wasn't running from them.

"Hey!"

Angry shouts, without a care for who might be listening.

"Hey! Get back here!"

The running feet were gaining, but I waited until they were almost on top of me before I turned.

I ducked Carver's fist, throwing myself forwards and tackling him hard, tangling my legs with his and spinning us both to the ground. I landed on top and didn't hesitate, striking out hard, hitting his nose, his throat, his chest, shots thrown wild by emotion.

"You bastard!" I screamed at him. "You pile of—"

Someone grabbed my arm as I drew it back, pulling me off Carver. I turned on them, finding Foster and ripping my arm from his grip, wheeling about only to find Malcolm in my path.

"And YOU!" I spat. "I told you! I told you he said no guns!"

"I didn't know he had it!" Malcolm shouted back. "And what the hell are you doing with one?"

"I already had it," I snarled, rubbing my head and finding my hair wild. "I had it when I came up here, and when he told me no guns, I told him I had one, and he let me keep it. And I'm really fucking glad he did."

"You threatened to shoot me!" Carver shouted, torn between anger and indignation, as he came back to his feet. Foster shoved himself between us as he came at me.

"And I wish I had!" I shouted. There was silence. I looked away, finding Ellie and Alex staring at me. I considered my words.

"I wish I had," I repeated, feeling truth roll off my tongue, staring straight into Carver's eyes. I had never killed directly before, but in that moment, and even after it, with such anger, such _fury_ coursing through me, I regretted not pulling the trigger. Was that the same as wishing I had done it?

"Do you have _any_ _idea_ what you've done? You..." I shook my head, pushed past Malcolm, and walked away from them all. There were no insults bad enough.

I was done, I was so done. Done with the whole damn lot of them.

"Jac, wait!" Malcolm called after me, his voice almost lost in the cacophony of voices that rose behind me.

"She almost fucking shot me!" Carver's voice rose above them all, and my feet pounded the ground even harder as I stomped away.

"Jac!" Malcolm was closer now, as we left the others behind. "Jac, wait."

I didn't stop, but nor could I prevent him falling in beside me. I did turn slightly so that we were going directly uphill, hoping to wear him out.

"Look..." Malcolm began. "We're all mad at Carver. He shouldn't have bought the gun. I'm so pissed, believe me, but you could have handled it better too."

I threw him a disgusted look and sped up. Unfortunately, the hill and the hard pace were getting to my thighs. Slackening off the pace again, I turned to face him, crossing my arms.

"It's not that I..." Malcolm said quickly, then stalled. "I don't... I'm not trying to say..."

"What _are_ you trying to say?" I cut him off.

"Where are they?" he said. "Where do they live, where will they have gone?"

I nearly hit him.

"So you know where to come back to?" I hissed. "So you can tell them all where to shoot?"

It was Dreyfus's words ringing in my ears again. W _e're going up there, and we're going to kill them all._

"No!" Malcolm looked shocked. "No! Jac, I don't want that. I want to talk to him, persuade him."

I laughed bitterly. "No. No way. Don't you ever listen? He wants us gone. I'm going. You should too."

"Please. Just let me try."

"And Carver?"

Malcolm gave a half-shrug. "I... I don't know. See what Caesar wants?"

I gave him a direct look. "And if he wants what I didn't do?"

"He had the gun," Malcolm said. "He knew what to do with it. He didn't."

"No, he didn't. He didn't shot you, or your family, or any of us. You'd better remember that."

"Jac, come on. Please. Just let us try. If we go back down without getting the dam working, I don't know what will happen. I don't want to know. People are desperate."

I couldn't hold his gaze.

"Please," he begged. "I can't give up now."

"Alright," I said. "I'll show you. But I won't take responsibility for what happens there."

"Thank you," Malcolm breathed. "Thank you."

He took off back down towards the others at a run. I watched him go, then began to walk again, slower this time, my feet dragging as I moved back down to the path, where he could catch me up again.

Why had I ever hoped? Why had I ever dared to allow myself to dream? It had all been a deception. Thinking that I could hide my past, thinking there could be peace between our two races. Hadn't we proven, over and over and over again, that humans would never choose peace? From the first day the apes had escaped, they had been hunted. I'd seen the illumination of the firebomb dropped on the woods. There would be no peace.

It was not one, but two sets of hurrying feet that caught up with me. I wiped my face, smearing the wet streaks more than erasing them, before glancing back. Ellie was on Malcolm's heels, both of them grim-faced as they joined me. No one said a word as I sped up, pushing off the trail, heading up towards the entrance to the apes' camp.

.

.

I left Malcolm and Ellie to enter the camp alone, pointing out the way in wordlessly, then turning on my heel before they could say anything. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of a chimp shadowing me through the trees as I headed back down to the camp. I would gather my things, and be gone. Quite where I would go, I wasn't sure, but I knew I couldn't return to the city. Dreyfus knew my secret, as did Denny. It was too much to be held over my head. No, it was time to break from them. I would wait until this group had left, give Caesar some time to calm down, and hopefully make my own personal peace with him.

Then what? Go further north maybe? Or further inland? I sighed, pushing branches aside. Somewhere. I would go somewhere. There were other pockets of humans still alive, surely. I would find one of them, and this time, I wouldn't reveal my secret. Not for anything, or anyone.

 _Some life_ , a voice inside me whispered, and I scowled.

Yes, I thought viciously, it was some life. It was _a_ life. Better than a death.

Stalking into our campsite, I looked up and froze. I hadn't thought. Of course, the others had come back here. _Damn_. I looked aside from their angry gazes. They seemed to be packing, but slowly, more tidying than clearing away. Still hopeful then. Carver was sat on a log, not helping.

Ignoring them all, I moved alone, claiming my things. If they hadn't been there, I might have tried to sneak away a few more supplies, but pride wouldn't let me do it in front of them, so I turned my back to them and worked in silence. They echoed my quiet, but I took harsh pleasure in imagining all they'd been saying before I'd arrived.

"Where's Malcolm?" Foster broke the silence before I was ready for him to do so. I hesitated, then turned to face them all, avoiding Alex's worried gaze.

"Up there," I said, waving a hand up the hill.

"You left them up there?"

"Yeah, I did." I thought about making excuses, but I couldn't be bothered. When had life become such an effort?

"But..." Alex's whisper was painful to hear, his expression more painful to see.

I turned away.

"Better to accept it now, kid. She doesn't care. About you, him, any of us."

My hands stilled momentarily as I tightened the strap on my bag, but other than that, I gave no indication that I'd heard Carver's vicious words. He didn't take the hint, and I heard him roll to his feet, stalking towards me. I flexed my legs, feeling the gun, confirming it was in place. The holster was hard against my thigh, almost begging for me to pull the pistol out.

"Nah, don't expect him to come back. She probably killed them both and left them out there. Wouldn't mean a thing to her. Not a damn thing."

Why couldn't he just stop talking?

"Carver, that's—"

"—enough?" Carver cut across Foster. " Really? You think that's enough, after she threatened to kill me!" His voice rose to a shout.

I turned. "Shut up," I said, the hint of a snarl curling the words.

"Or what?" he took another step closer. "You gonna pull your gun out again, wave it around? See how many more of us you can get rid of."

I flinched, the words striking truer than I would have liked.

"Bet you've done it before, haven't you?" Carver jeered. "Did you enjoy it?"

"Shut your mouth," I growled, my body shifting, preparing to spring.

"Enough!" Foster barked, but neither of us heard him. There was a rushing in my ears, a pounding that was drowning the rest of the world, drowning it in blood.

"No, tell me about it!" Carver commanded. "Was it in the riots? What happened, did you get your hands on a gun and find someone on the other end of it? Did you like it?"

"No!"

"No, you loved it, didn't you?!"

"I hate it!" I screamed.

There was a silence in which everything broke.

Lies cracked, layers shattered, masks split apart.

Every eye was on me.

"I knew it," Carver hissed. "I goddam knew it!"

I turned away, shaking.

"How many was it? Two? Ten? Fifty?"

"Everyone!" I whipped back around to face him, lunging forwards and shoving him back. He stumbled but kept his feet. "Everyone!" I shouted again. "You want to blame the apes for it all, well don't! Blame me! It was me!"

Truth. Blessed truth.

It was like breathing clean air and feeling its purity choke me.

Every face was the same. Horror and hatred. I met Carver's eyes and knew, in one glimpse, that if I'd shouted it out like that in the colony, there would have been a lynch mob formed in seconds. But here, there was only four of them, and I had the gun. I backed away a step, feeling my bag behind me.

Crashing footsteps. We all looked sideways in time to see Malcolm and Ellie jog down into the clearing, their faces triumphant.

"We're allowed to..." Malcolm's voice trailed away as he looked around at the stony expressions. "What is it? What's happened?"

"Did you know about this?" Carver demanded, pointing an accusatory finger at me. Flinching, I turned away, grabbing my bag and swinging it up onto my shoulder.

"About what?" Ellie asked. I turned back and met Malcolm's eyes as I did so.

"Do you think I've spread it around?" I snapped before he could speak.

It wasn't worth risking transferring their anger onto him, especially not when we were so isolated up here.

"We're allowed to stay for one more day," Malcolm announced. "The apes are going to help clear the debris."

Everyone ignored him. They were watching me, and there was no welcome in their gaze.

"Good luck," I said dully, then turned and walked away.

There was a large amount of spluttering into silence.

"Wha—? Are you just going to let her walk away? Don't... but... you don't know what she did!"

"I know what you did," Malcolm cut across Carver, swiftly changing the direction of the conversation. "There's a new condition to us being allowed to stay."

"But she—"

I kept walking, letting their voices fade behind me.


	12. The Sound of Silence

I headed north-west, towards the coast, skirting around the slopes that would lead me up towards the apes, but I'd been walking for only a few minutes when a dark shadow descended to the ground. Halting, I stared at the ape, waiting. They looked back, head bobbing a little as their eyes darted over me. Apparently satisfied, they pointed up the hill, hooting lightly. I hesitated.

"Cae-sar," the ape seemed to force the word out. "Cae-sar." The pointing became more insistent.

I sighed and turned, following as the ape bounded away.

They took almost instantly to a tree, and I paused, tilting my head back to watch their ascent. From high above, they looked down and hooted expectantly.

"I can't follow you up there," I pointed out.

The ape looked down at me, then leapt, flying through the air to the next tree, barely grasping the branch before swinging to the next one. There, they stopped and looked back at me.

Shaking my head, I shadowed them from the ground, walking into branches and tripping over roots because I wasn't watching my feet. It did at least keep me from thinking. Mostly.

.

.

The ape didn't take me to the entrance I'd used before, but further round to the west, and through a tight opening that was easy enough for the limber ape to navigate, but somewhat more difficult for me. I knocked my head three times ducking through the narrow gaps.

On the other side, I straightened up, rubbing my sore hands as I glanced around. Faces turned to me, then away again. My guide was already knuckling away, and I hesitated, wondering if they considered their job to be over.

When they looked impatiently back, I concluded that they didn't, and hastened after them. We made our way around the outcrop of rock where I'd met Caesar before, climbing up from another side. I stopped, staring at the carving on the wall.

Writing. They could write.

 _Ape not kill ape_.

I swallowed. Were they so much better than us already?

Turning away, I passed the place I'd slept and climbed the log ramp around the outside of a huge tree. At the top, my guide paused, looked back at me, then pointed onwards.

"Thank you," I murmured, signing it as well as I went past.

The ape panted a couple of time, then bounded away.

Alone, I walked forwards into the shadowed centre of the treetop.

The woven branches overhead kept off the rain, but the open sides let in streams of foggy illumination, and by their light, I looked upon Caesar and his family. The scarred ape was there, Munchkin in his arms, and between them and Caesar, a circular nest, occupied by a dark figure with a very pale face. The chimp, with a string of flower buds across her brow, was wheezing, the sound tortuous in the stillness.

Caesar turned his head, but I couldn't meet his bright eyes.

I stared at the floor as he stood up, only raising my gaze when I turned to follow him. He only went to the opening before sitting down on the curving path, half turned to keep watching his family. I sat a few feet away and looked back at them too.

"She's..." I wasn't sure what to say. Was she his mate?

"My wife. Cornelia," he said.

I was glad I hadn't tried to guess.

"She's sick."

For a moment he didn't say anything. "The woman. Brought medicine."

"Ellie," I nodded. "She was a doctor, of sorts." I looked back again, seeing the way Munchkin's tiny hands clung to the fur of the older ape. "I'm sorry. I should never have..." I broke off with a sigh.

"You protected them," Caesar said.

I glanced at him, then followed his gaze back towards the nest.

"My sons. Thank you."

 _Sons._ Plural. I glanced at the scarred ape with new eyes, but couldn't rouse any real emotion. "You really shouldn't thank me," I said morosely.

He didn't reply.

"You're letting them stay?"

"Yes. For her kindness," he said, his eyes still on his wife.

Ellie, I reasoned. Ellie had convinced him. I nodded. "She's a good person." I hesitated. "Carver..."

"—won't be there," Caesar said, his green eyes swinging back to me. I nodded. That was his new condition then. I wondered how Malcolm had taken it, and how Carver would react.

I took a deep breath. "I can't be there either."

He just stared at me.

"They know. They know what I used to do, what I did with Will."

"So?"

I gritted my teeth. It was so hard to explain it to him. "The drug that Will and I, and Franklin, worked on, the one that made you smart? It made people, humans, sick. Very sick. They died. Lots and lots and lots of people died." I could feel his eyes on me, but couldn't meet his gaze, staring off across the ape's home instead. "I didn't tell anyone I'd helped make it, but after Carver... I was so mad. It just came out. So now they know. And when they go back, everyone else with know too, if they don't already."

Caesar was still silent.

"They are very angry," I said quietly. "Very angry. I don't think I can ever go back."

More silence.

I gestured down to the writing I'd seen below. "Ape not kill ape," I recited. "Is it true? Does it work?"

Caesar nodded, and I met his gaze again.

"We were never that good."

His face twitched then he looked away.

"Stay here," he suggested.

For a moment, I stared at him in shock. He seemed perfectly serious. I blinked hard as I looked away.

"Thank you," I said, and I meant it, "but I don't think that would work. I'm not ape. They wouldn't trust me."

"They could."

"Not all of them," I muttered to myself before addressing him again. "Where is Koba?"

He snorted again and made a swift motion with both his hands as if he was scratching his stomach. I raised an eyebrow, repeating the motion back at him. He huffed.

"Angry," he translated.

I made a face. We both sat in silence as we watched the sun rising higher in the sky. Other apes occasionally ascended towards us, some passing us to check on Cornelia, others stopping to sign rapidly at Caesar. Munchkin came over at one point, pulling himself into my lap and grooming my hair. I smiled sadly, returning the favour on his leg without thinking about it. His brother didn't join us.

An orangutan came and sat on Caesar's other side. Their conversation was silent and slow, with whole minutes passing between responses, but it felt like comfortable pauses, rather than hard ones. Munchkin abandoned me in favour of his father, and I pushed to my feet. Caesar's eyes, so very human, followed me.

"Thank you," I said, stepping back down the trunk, "for letting them stay. I hope it works out." _I hope we don't have to find out what will happen if it doesn't._

"I do not trust them," Caesar growled, his eyes still fixed on me.

I looked aside. I knew what he was asking of me. It was true that more hands would make the work go faster, but helping would require me to face the others again. Did I have the courage to do that? Would I be able to let them work with the apes without being there? Would my presence help, or hinder?

"I'll think about it," I said. "Better if we arrive separately anyway."

Caesar huffed once, but nodded, turning to sign quickly to the orangutan, then hooting, drawing the attention of another ape, and signing to him as well.

I hurried off down the ramp and out the main entrance. It would be better if I was there already, I thought. Then the others would have to fall in, rather than being able to reject my assistance.

I gave what might once have been a smile. Apparently, I'd made my decision, without even realising it. I may not be part of them anymore, but that didn't mean I had to stand completely apart. At least, I hoped not.

.

.

Most of the main structure seemed to be holding, even if it wasn't completely sound. I smiled as I brushed small particles of rock to the side of a walkway with my foot, looking up at the ceiling cracks that had caused them. Imagine the fit governments might have had about this place now. Health and safety had taken on a different meaning in this new world.

For lack of a better option, I'd been piling debris against the railings, trying to clear ways through the rubble to the control stations. They didn't seem to have suffered any direct hits, but the sheer number of buttons and switches astounded me. For one moment, I'd wondered how we could manage to do anything without Carver. I'd shut that thought down hard, but not before wondering if Malcolm and the others would rather have had him here than me. I shut that thought down even harder.

Echoing footsteps reached me, and garbled voices. My heart stuttered, and I quickly turned away, grabbing another piece of concrete, ignoring the water dripping from overhead as I lugged it across the room. The feet halted abruptly, the voices falling silent. I dumped my load onto one of the smaller piles, using a hand to steady it on its perch as I turned.

For a long moment, we stared at each other. None of them moved, and my heart sank when I realised that most likely, none of them would. No one would want to be the first to accept my presence. So I turned away, moving to another block of concrete that was blocking a doorway.

There was another moment of hesitant silence, then movement. I let out a silent sigh of relief, listening to the footsteps disperse around the room. None came over to me, but at least they were moving, or most of them were.

I glanced over my shoulder and found Kemp's eyes on me, his feet still planted. He didn't look away from me as he turned his head to the side and spat.

My throat tightened. We looked at each other for another second, then he looked away, moving over to stand at a control panel with Foster.

I remained frozen in my crouch as Caesar moved to fill the space he'd taken, watching me as other apes filed around him, moving quickly to continue my work of clearing the rubble. I met Caesar's unreadable gaze but there was nothing to be said. I looked away, continuing my work alone.


	13. Confrontations

My isolation persisted. If I struggled with one of the larger pieces of rubble, it was always an ape that would come to my aid. They were constantly signing to each other, their dancing fingers and hands a constant barrier between us. Between my limited vocabulary of two phrases and a few letters, and my unwillingness to draw attention by speaking, it was a lonely partnership, but it was far more than I got from my fellow humans.

We'd been working for at least an hour when I felt a firm tug on my shoulder. I looked up, about to turn and see which ape wanted help, when Malcolm walked past me. He didn't look back, and for a moment I thought he'd brushed me by mistake. Then his hand, swinging at his side, beckoned twice. I bent my head back over the wires I was twisted together, waiting for a full count of 15 before standing up and following him.

He was waiting for me in a dark passage, arms crossed. I took a breath before stepping out.

"Are you okay?" he asked, arms dropping at once as he stepped forwards.

I was so shocked that I tripped over my own feet, my arms flung out to catch me on a rusted barrier.

"What?" I choked.

The concern in Malcolm's face only became more apparent. "What happened? I thought..."

I somehow got my feet under me and straighten up, though I maintained my grip on the railing.

"I..." I struggled to get a full breath. "The more hands, the faster this will get done," I explained.

"And then? Will you come back with us?"

I gave him a look. "I go back to the city, I'll be dead within a week," I prophesied. His face tightened, but I didn't give him a chance to speak. "Don't let them know you already knew about me, if you can. No point letting it roll onto you."

"Jac, you don't know that—"

"—yes, I do." I cut across him. "And so do you."

"What will you do?" he asked.

I shrugged, with more nonchalance than I felt. "See this finished, then... I don't know. Go somewhere else. Try and find more people, maybe. Or just keep moving. There are lots of places we haven't searched yet. There should be supplies, as long as I don't go too far from residential areas. Could circle round and go south." I was rambling my thoughts, and stopped, cutting it off.

"You've thought about this," Malcolm observed.

I shrugged again. "First I was waiting for something to recognise me, or call me out on a lie. Then I was waiting to make a mistake, a slip. It just took longer than I'd expected."

"How will that be different anywhere else?"

I gave a cold smile. "I haven't slipped there yet."

"And the apes?"

I hesitated. "I guess I might stick around to make sure things go smoothly for a little while. Or within reach, anyway." I shook my head, looking the other way. "I thought Carver had fucked it all up, for sure."

Malcolm snorted. "You weren't the only one." We stood in silence for a few seconds. "Thank you," he said suddenly, and I looked up. "If you hadn't shown us where to go to try and persuade him..."

"Don't make me regret it," I warned him, only half joking.

"I'll do my best," he replied seriously, but with a slight quirk of his mouth.

"And you should thank Ellie," I said. "I gather she's the one who persuaded him."

Malcolm nodded absently. When he didn't say anything else, I moved away.

"We should get back to work," I said. "Give me a minute before you follow me."

Malcolm frowned. "I don't judge you for what you did."

Something in my chest cracked as I looked at him. "But others will judge you on whether or not you judge me," I said, clearing my throat. "You can't take my side in this."

"Why not?"

I snorted. "Oh, please. Everyone knows you and Dreyfus are thick as thieves. If anything happened to him, people would look to you. You shouldn't risk tarnishing your reputation."

His frown deepened. "You think something might happen?"

"No, but in these times... it would be short-sighted not to consider it."

We exchanged another look.

"It'll be fine," I said. "Let's just get this done." I turned and walked quickly back out to the main area, quickly adding my weight to a stiff lever and endeavouring not to notice the eyes on me.

.

.

The flash of dark movement drew my eyes, and I turned as the ape hit the floor with a metallic thud. I recognised him at once, freezing even before his scarred face turned my way. Koba's one good eye skimmed over me, focusing instead on one of the other apes as Caesar's elder son landed behind him. I frowned at the pairing.

"Caesar," Koba said aloud, and I flinched to hear his rough voice again. How could one word sound so angry? The ape he'd questioned pointed to the back room where I knew Caesar was working.

Koba turned at once, just as Alex hurried down the steps into his path, busy turning over something in his hands. Koba's movement was too deliberate to be casual as he shoved Alex to the ground.

"Hey!" Alex's indignant shout, while not unjustified, was not the most desirable response.

Koba rounded on him at once, and I heard his snarl as I stepped forwards.

Malcolm was faster, literally jumping in front of his son, one ineffective hand flung out at Koba. His begging was interrupted as the orangutan stepped between them, a threatening noise rumbling up from his throat as he stood upright. His long arms seemed to double his body size as he stared Koba down. I didn't dare breathe.

"Where Caesar?" Koba growled. "Want Caesar. Caesar!" The last word was a rising scream, full of anger and demand.

I looked the other way, just in time to see Caesar stepping out into view, moving so carefully, it was as if he weighed each motion before he made it. Against Koba's rough anger, he could not have looked more different. Watching them move towards each other, I couldn't help thinking that they were squaring off. I took a step away, feeling the hard railing at my back.

" Humans attack your sons," Koba cried, his rough voice dripping with accusation. "You let them stay?! Put apes in danger! Caesar love humans more than apes! More than your sons."

Up until the last sentence, I'd thought Caesar would walk away, but at the final claim, my eyes widened. Caesar may be smart as hell, and he may be their leader, but he was still a father.

His eyes flicked past Koba, to where I knew his son was watching. He looked back at Koba. There was half a second when I thought I was wrong, that Caesar would step away. Then, he leapt.

I scrambled away as the two apes collided, half-climbing, half-falling backwards over the railing out of their way. The mass of dark fur rolled, then rolled again, and I lost track of who was who. The other apes were screeching and howling, Malcolm had enough sense to drag Alex to his feet out of harm's way, and the others were looking on in horror as the ape on top came to his feet, raining a storm of blows down onto the other's chest.

 _He's going to kill him_ , I thought, for one wild moment. If I'd know which of them was which, I might have tried to do something, but from my angle, I couldn't see either face. Then it was over. The ape on top went still.

"Ape not kill ape," Caesar said as he stepped off of Koba's heaving body. For a few seconds, everyone was still. Caesar had turned away, his back to me, but I wondered if he was watching Koba out the corner of his eye. Indeed, when Koba moved, Caesar didn't seem surprised.

The bonobo rolled up into a crouch, his head down, hand raised in supplication towards Caesar.

"Forgive me," Koba panted, but his voice still sounded angry to me. Caesar didn't respond at once, looking around at the other apes instead before reaching his hand to Koba.

As soon as Caesar made contact, Koba turned, knuckling away before Caesar could complete the gesture. Everyone watched him go in silence.

Caesar turned to look at his son, who wouldn't meet his gaze. No one else moved, all waiting to see what would happen. Only when Caesar looked away, did faces turn, eyes refocusing on work. I held my position where I'd scrambled out of the way for another instance then swung between the bars and took off down the corridor, after Koba.

.

.

I didn't catch up with him until we were outside, but if he was aware of me, he gave no sign, stalking away across the rough ground to where the horses were grazing.

"Koba."

He turned, his already unsettling face twisted into a horrifying snarl. I swallowed.

"I..." _am an idiot. Following an ape stronger than myself, who has a proven history of violence against me personally, out to where they are no witnesses. Well done, you utter jackass._

"I..." _am going to make this worse whatever I say._

He was stalking towards me now, and the bite on my arm was throbbing with every step he took. I quailed as he came towards me, sitting down on my heels as I turned my shoulders away. _Not a threat, not a threat, not a threat,_ I gibbered internally, my gaze fixed on his feet.

Koba came to a stop a foot away from me. I couldn't look up at him but managed not to flinch as his hand extended into my vision. His rough fingers gripped my chin, forcing it up until I was staring at his scarred face.

We looked at each other, the scar down the right side of his face emphasising his snarl. With one casual motion, he shoved me backwards. I landed hard, jarring the arm that I threw out to stop myself going completely head over heels. When I looked up again, he was already walking away.

"I wish your life could have been better."

I don't know where the words came from, or what possessed me to shout them after him. He paused for the barest second, then continued away. He hopped up onto his horse, wheeling it about and was gone without looking back.

I fell backwards, lying on the damp rocky ground and just breathed.


	14. Power Returning

We had to talk Malcolm into stopping that evening. The apes had done pretty much all they could, it was the fiddly work that remained and since we weren't even sure of what we were doing, there seemed little point in them staying. That was settled fairly quickly. What took longer was for Malcolm to be talked out of working on, possibly through the night, to try and get it fixed.

"You've got another day," I said eventually, forgetting my self-imposed silence in my frustration. Ignoring the human eyes that fixed on me, I turned to look at Caesar and the orangutan who had stayed with him, watching the last of the other apes leaving.

"You said one _more_ day, right?" I pointed out. "So that's today, and one more day, tomorrow."

The orangutan made a rumble in his throat, signing something to Caesar, who huffed but signed back before turning to Malcolm.

"One more day," he confirmed, then turned and walked away.

The orangutan followed, still giving out his rumbling laugh. Malcolm turned to look at me.

"What?" I asked, swinging my legs under the railing I was perched on.

"He didn't say one more day," Malcolm said. "He said 'one day'."

I shrugged. "Well... as long as it worked."

Foster snorted, then immediately looked away.

"Alright," Malcolm caved, with a glance at Alex. "Let's go get some grub."

.

.

I was the last one out of the dam, having deliberately dawdled so I could slip away without the others noticing. However, just outside the door, a skinny figure detached itself from the wall.

"Jac?"

I whirled, hands coming up, squinting as I looked towards the setting sun as the silhouette. They took a step forwards, and I dropped my hands at once.

"Alex?" I glanced behind me, to where the others were moving off towards their campsite. "You'll get left behind," I warned him, moving the other way, out of his path.

"I wanted to talk to you."

I looked from the boy, to the retreating figures, to the setting sun, and cursed in my head.

"Alright," I said warily, following the others, hurrying to keep them in sight. Alex matched my long strides but didn't say anything as we gained on the others. Malcolm glanced back, saw us both, and turned away again.

"Is it true?" Alex blurted out suddenly.

My pace slowed, but I didn't look round at him. I didn't need to ask what he was talking about.

"Yes," I said eventually. "It's true."

"You created the virus?"

"I helped. I was only one of a team." A few more steps of silence. I glanced sideways at him. "This wasn't what we wanted. We didn't mean for this to happen."

"Yeah, I know that," Alex nodded quickly. "What was it meant to do?"

"Cure Alzheimer's."

"Huh."

"Yeah. And it worked, too," I muttered bitterly.

"What?"

"It worked."

He gave me a confused look.

I sighed, brushing back my hair, wondering where to start, and how much to tell. "My team leader, Will Rodman, his father had Alzheimer's, that's why he was in the field. Anyway, Dr Rodman, Will, had developed this drug, ALZ-112. It was being tested on chimps. There was one, Bright Eyes, who showed really promising results, but during a board meeting for funding, she went berserk, rampaging everywhere. A security guard shot her."

"The drug made her violent?" Alex asked. "Why wasn't it shut down?"

"It was," I said. "Funding withdrawn, work scrapped. The apes were all put down. That's when the chimp handler found that Bright Eyes had had a baby. They must have missed the pregnancy on her blood work or something, I don't know. Anyway, Will saved him, took him home. Called him Caesar."

Alex's eyes widened and I nodded.

"Yeah. So that's why he's so smart. ALZ-112 was designed to let the brain create new cells, to repair the damage done by Alzheimer's. Obviously, Caesar didn't have any damage. Will's theory was that it enhanced his brain function, in lieu of making repairs.

"Anyway, ALZ-112 was officially sent back to the drawing board but, as I said, Will's father had Alzheimer's. So he... well." I sighed, shook my head, and shrugged.

"Long story short, it worked, but only for a while. After 5 years, the disease was overcoming the drug. I was working at Gen-sys at this point. Will helped me get in the door; I'd lived next door to him when I was younger. I found out about Caesar when I had to take some papers for his signature.

"When Charles' disease started to come back, we started to focus our research on a..." I sighed, looking away into the sun-kissed trees. "... a more aggressive virus strain to deliver the gene therapy. Enter ALZ-113," I spread my arms in bitter celebration. "Simian Flu. I'm sure you can guess the rest."

"And that's what made the other apes smart? They were exposed to it?"

"I'm not entirely sure," I admitted. "The apes can't get it from us, the virus mutates inside us, but I haven't worked up the nerve to ask Caesar if he did something, something to spread it."

"It mutates?"

I nodded. "That was clear from the samples of those infected."

"But that must have been after the outbreak."

"Yeah." I shot him another look. "I didn't run for the hills straight away."

"I didn't think about it."

I snorted. "Yeah, neither did we." I sighed.

"So you... what?"

I laughed. "Tried to stop it, of course! To find a cure. There were people running around bleating about recapturing the apes, to engineer a cure from them, since they held the un-mutated strain. We disagreed. We knew what it was, we just didn't know how to stop it." I sighed again.

It had been a mad race, trying to save as much of our work as possible, while not hindering others' attempts. I thought they'd gotten to Linda; she'd disappeared within a week, and I _knew_ that it was her notes that had fuelled that article by David Flynn. After that everything had been blown wide open. I'd grabbed as much as I could and stashed it elsewhere, but without access to the Gen-sys lab, or any other equipment, there had been little more that I could do.

Franklin had been the first to die. Linda had gone. Will had never reappeared. Joseph and Sarah had both died in the Alpha-Omega attack on Alameda Point. They hadn't even been infected, just trying to help. Then I was the only one left.

I blinked, looking up and coming to an abrupt halt as I saw fire through the trees. It took a couple of seconds to realise that it was the camp; the adults were moving around in front of the dancing flames.

"You should go to your dad," I said.

Alex glanced sideways at me. "You're not coming?"

I nearly smiled. "No, I'm not coming."

"But..."

"A right and a wrong don't balance out." _Especially not when the wrong had gone so very wrong, and the right had failed._ "Go on."

He continued to look at me.

"Go on! I'm alright. Go."

He went. I watched him safely to his father's side before I turned away, walking off to find my own place to stay the night.

Trying to explain it all had brought so much back, so much I'd thought I'd forgotten. I could remember the first wave of government people in suits invading Gen-sys labs after the apes had been broken out. I'd hidden files anywhere I could; between lockers, on the tops of cupboards, in printer trays.

It wasn't that I had wanted to deny them to the rest of the world, I just didn't want to lose them. Had I been too arrogant? Could another, with that information, have found a cure? I sighed. Useless to speculate now. It was just another decision to keep me up at night.

Looking up into the trees, I smiled at the spectacular colours cast over the sky by the setting sun. If there was one decision I didn't regret, it was Caesar. Both Will's choice to keep him, and my decision to keep him hidden, they made no difference to our fate. I was sure that either way, Will would still have treated his father. That was what had lead to the development of ALZ-113, not Caesar's existence.

I tried to steer my thoughts away from the useless path, but it was too late so I let go, following the track forwards. Could _anything_ have been done to prevent this? I sighed again. What was the point? Yes, if Charles hadn't had Alzheimer's, if Will hadn't been a scientist, if the ALZ-112 had been more effective, if ALZ-113 hadn't been quite so aggressive, if we had done more modelling, or more QSAR, before moving on to testing, if Koba hadn't shifted during that one trial, knocking Franklin's mask off... _If, if, if_.

So what? Something else would have happened. Maybe we would have died off in 200 years as climate change rendered 40% of the earth's surface as realistically uninhabitable, either from flooding, or because it was no longer able to sustain crops. Maybe we would have descended into World War III. I didn't believe that humans would have survived forever. Was it better this way, that the apes got a chance to do better than we did?

 _Ape not kill ape_. I smiled again. Maybe they would even succeed.

.

.

Work began again early for me the next day. Everything was sodden after a night of rolling fog, and I was glad I'd brought plenty of plastic bags to wrap my things in. Even so, it was a miserable hike back to the dam, and by the time I arrived, I had wet legs from the undergrowth and wet shoulders from the dripping trees.

I started off by clearing some more of the control panels, wiping away the dust and dirt caking them so that we could see the labels and lights more clearly. It took longer than I'd expected, and I was still working at it when the others arrived. There were far fewer apes, with Caesar noticeable only by his absence, but the orangutan was there, and a couple of others.

At first, the tension of the previous day remained, but without an hour, Foster was helping me unblock a valve, and then Ellie and I were both called over to help hold up a pipe while the screws were replaced and tightened. I didn't know if Alex had told them anything, or if they'd just had the time to process the revelation. _Most of them, anyway_ , I thought, as Kemp gave a dirty look to my shoulder. He hadn't met my eyes all day, but he was the only one still shunning me.

We had a brief stop for lunch, swigging down some water and jumping back to work. Even I could feel the deadline hanging over us. Ellie volunteered to go back to the campsite to get more food, and we continued working without having to discuss it. We were so close - I could feel it. The dam was starting to shift into alignment, spitting out noises and groans as we reminded it of its purpose. Ellie had only been gone for a couple of minutes when her voice echoed back down to us.

"Malcolm!" she cried, the single word filled with too many emotions to identify. "Malcolm!"

He came hurtling out of the tunnel he'd been in, looking worried as he shouted back to her, "What is it? What's happened?"

.

.

It was stunning. I was stunned. The gas station, all lit up in the midst of the dark trees, was like nothing else I'd seen for 8 years. This wasn't the calculated illumination of the city, where we lived by the sun most of the time, and every other light was debated over, to see if we could afford the indulgence. This was casual, like a glowing marble someone had dropped onto a dark surface and not bothered to pick up again.

Kemp was the first to venture forwards, ducking quickly inside and heading off to the left. None of the others seemed inclined to follow him, so I was the next to move to the door, as clopping hooves announced the arrival of more apes, Caesar at their head. He looked up at the brightly lit building with an unreadable expression. Poking my head inside, I looked around. The food was long gone, of course, and the roof was leaking, leaving puddles all over the floor. But it was still a little piece of what had once been... a piece of _before_. The illusion became even more tangible when music suddenly began to float out of speakers, both inside and on the roof, strands of classic rock floating through the trees.

I couldn't help myself, my smile widened to breaking point, and I even laughed, spinning in a circle with my arms thrown wide, listening to notes that hadn't been heard for ten years. Grabbing hold of the rotting doorframe to steady my dizzy feet, I looked up in time to see Caesar ride over to Malcolm. My heart clenched for one second.

Was he telling them it was time to leave?

I was too far away to hear what was said, but when Caesar reached down, offering his hand to Malcolm, I choked a little. Malcolm reached back up to him, and they shook hands.

My eyes closed. It would be okay. They would work it out.

Malcolm had the pull among the human colony, and Caesar had a firm hold over the apes. With them as advocates, maybe the damage Carver had done could be repaired. There would be peace. And no need for me.


	15. Power Shifting

The thought of my redundancy followed me as I lagged behind the others, barely noticing where my feet were taking me. Malcolm and Caesar, working together, would be able to keep everything together, I was sure. The music followed us, reaching much further than I'd expected it to, carrying on the still air.

Ape calls reached my ears and I looked up, startled to find that we were approaching the home Caesar had built. What were we doing here? I sped up, watching Caesar enter first, followed by Ellie and Malcolm, then Alexander and the orangutan, with Foster and Kemp the last of the little group. The rest of the apes milled around us, and I could see more of them waiting anxiously inside the complex but their screeching quietened somewhat at Caesar's calmness. Most of them would never have heard music before, and certainly not up here, but they accepted Caesar's acceptance. They followed him with such trust. With a wry smile, I thought that it was a good thing he was tolerant of humans.

 _No reason to be bitter about their good fortune_. Apparently my inner voice was in a good mood. That made one of us.

Pushing down my despair, I climbed up after the others to the perch under Caesar's tree-centred home. We were only feet away from where I'd slept that first night. There were gasps from the others, and I turned, looking back to the east.

"The... lights," Caesar said. He was right. San Francisco was alive and shining.

Houses where people had fled or died, not realising their lights were switched on once the power went out, everything wired directly into the grid, it was all shining brightly, and the sky was glowing. My knees crumpled. Had a death ever looked so beautiful?

 _How very morose_.

It was the truth though. It was everything I would never have again. The Jac who'd lived down there was dead now, if she'd ever really lived at all. I wondered how the rest of the colony was reacting. There would be long celebrations, I was sure, and they wouldn't be held in darkness, despite the black sky. The night had lost its dark hold.

A strong hand gripped my shoulder and I flinched, looking up. It was Caesar, looking at me with concern. I forced myself back to my feet, bringing a false smile to my face.

"They did it," I said.

He didn't say anything, just tightened his grip. I couldn't meet his bright eyes any longer, looking away, towards the city. With a huff, he turned away, going suddenly still. I looked up to see what he was focused on and found a true smile again. His wife, Cornelia, was on the ledge a little way above us, Munchkin in her arms. Caesar gave me one more glance before moving away, climbing up to meet them.

I lowered my gaze to see Ellie watching me. At her smile, I picked my way over to join her and nudged her shoulder, nodding upwards. She turned, and Malcolm looked up too.

"The miracle of antibiotics," he murmured. Ellie and I shared a glance and a smile before she turned back to look out at the city. I kept watching the family above us. Their elder son approached cautiously, his stunned eyes fixed on his mother as he gave a quick sign. His disbelief was evident as he moved cautiously closer, then pulled her into a rough embrace. Caesar moved away, leaving them to their moment as he looked out over not only the ape's home but across to the human city as well. Maybe one day, I thought, they wouldn't be so rigorously defined.

Cornelia broke apart from her son and he looked down for a moment.

Our eyes met. I smiled, quirking my eyebrow.

 _Give us a chance_ , I tried to say. _This is what we can do. Just give us a chance_.

Whether or not he understood, there was no malice, but perhaps a little embarrassment in his eyes as he glanced away. My grin widened as I looked away. There was hope for him yet.

The gunshot split the air, ringing in my ears like a bolt of Zeus's thunder striking the ground.

I ducked instinctively, as did all the other humans. The apes were just frozen. The silence was absolute as I straightened up, looking around for the culprit... but it was the victim that my eyes found.

"Caesar," I breathed, staring upwards. His hand was covering the right side of his chest, his eyes wide with shock. He tipped slowly forwards.

"CAESAR!" My scream split the silence as I lunged, my fingertips just brushing his dark fur as he toppled past. He fell. The apes began to scream.


	16. Plans in Pieces, Puzzles in Pieces

Screams and gibbers. Cries of anger, shock, and fear. Noise from all sides. I fell in a bubble of silence, dropping to my hands and knees as I peered forwards over the lip of the cliff, trying to see where Caesar had fallen. Surely he would burst back up at any moment? He couldn't possibly be...

A dark flash of movement made my heart jump, but it was Caesar's son, not Caesar himself, who bounded along the branch below then came to a sudden halt, lifting something into the air. For a moment, he was frozen, staring, then he turned, racing back beneath me. I gave one more desperate sweeping look down before wrenching my gaze away, turning in time to see the young ape jump up onto the same outcrop of rock where Caesar had stood above me... where Caesar would never stand again. The pain was so sharp that I could barely breathe and I had to blink several times before I could focus on his son and the things he was holding. A blue and white baseball cap, and an assault rifle.

"Human... gun!" the ape screamed, the first time I'd heard him speak aloud. It took a second for me to register what he'd said, and then my stomach turned over.

The orangutan, only feet away, turned his deep eyes to Malcolm. "Run," he rumbled.

They didn't need to be told twice, scrambling away at once. I couldn't bring myself to move. Everything was falling to pieces.

Another ape leapt up beside Caesar's son, his one white eye shining. Koba. The spell was broken and I backed away, turning to run, and found myself facing a wall of fire. I skidded to a halt, staring up at the inferno in horror. I caught a glimpse of Ellie's white face as she hesitated, looking back at me. I waved her on frantically, and turned the other way, scrambling along towards the little entrance I'd come through before.

"Humans kill Caesar!"

I heard Koba's cry over the crackling flames as I searched desperately for the way out. It had been here somewhere... There!

"Humans... burn ape home! Go! Get them!"

One leg through the gap, I looked back. A torrent of apes were streaming out of the main gate, but none of them seemed to have spotted my alternate exit route. I looked away, scrambling forwards, tearing my palms on the rough branches and feeling the heat pressing closer with every second.

"Apes must attack human city!" Koba shouted. "Fight back." I bit back a cry of anguish, forcing myself to go even faster. "Fight... for Caesar!"

Wriggling through the last gap, I burst out, but looked back, peering through the small gap. Koba was outlined against the sky, gun held over his head, the apes all hooting up at him. He had them now. They would follow him, in Caesar's name. A whoosh of fire blocked my view, and I shoved myself backwards, away from the spray of sparks. To the right, I could hear the sound of apes thundering down the hill. I gave one thought to Malcolm and Ellie, hoping they would get away, then turned and began to run.

.

.

There was no music to guide me in—the record had finished playing—but I managed to stumble close enough to see the light spilling out from the gas station. Adjusting my path slightly, I wrestled my way out of the undergrowth and shouldered my way inside. The door was too far off its hinges to close it behind me, so I hurried down to the other end of a row of shelves and crouched on the floor, peering back around the corner to watch for pursuit. I was panting, the noise loud even above the hum from the flickering lights.

A cracking branch was followed by an ape's howling call and I flinched. As quietly as I could, I pulled my pack off my back, shoving it in the bottom of the shelves to free my shoulders as I pulled out my gun. I inserted the clip with shaking hands but didn't chamber a round yet, eyes still focused on the door. I could still hear the apes moving through the forest, screaming as they went, but the sounds remained distant. None of them seemed to be coming this way. Setting the gun carefully down next to me, I took stock.

I had my long knife, strapped to my thigh next to the gun holster. My smaller one was missing, knocked off during my flight, or perhaps left in the dam. I couldn't remember when I'd last used it. I still had my gun, and all 15 bullets, and my pack with everything in it. I had the map and some supplies. I reached inside and rooted around, finally coming up with the photo I'd taken from Will's house.

Looking down at Caesar and Will's innocent embrace, I choked back a sob. How could this have happened? I thought back, to the baseball cap that Caesar's son had found with the gun. Carver. I was going to rip him limb from limb. I was going to peel off each of his fingernails slowly. I was going to make him _scream_.

The scream ripped through me, and I flinched, eyes going back to the door as I froze in fear, listening hard. It was too close to my vicious thoughts. The sound continued, undeniably human, peaking several times before it suddenly cut off. I covered my mouth with my hand as I whimpered.

.

.

It took hours for the sounds of the apes to fade, and I waited a long time after that before I stood up very cautiously. Tucking the photograph and a flashlight in a pocket, I kept the gun out as I kicked my backpack further into the shadows and stepped cautiously out from the hiding place. I wouldn't need to take it with me for this. I bruised my shoulder shoving open the back door to a storage area, but found the breaker switch easily enough, pulling it down and sending the place back into darkness.

.

.

Every noise made me look back over my shoulder for a flash of dark fur and bright eyes. My legs were aching from the effort of maintaining my silent progress downhill towards where the trucks had been left. The moon was hidden behind clouds but I didn't dare bring out the flashlight. I walked blind, feeling my way with my toes, one hand out in front of me, the other maintaining a firm grip on my gun. I didn't stop until a harsh smell reached my nose, the scent making my tongue curl. The metallic tang was one I'd become very familiar with ten years ago, when it had permeated every street, every house.

Blood.

Swallowing, I pulled out the flashlight and flicked it on, the head pressed against my thigh to hide the light. Keeping the beam low, I cast it slowly around.

Foster's body was only three feet away from me. He had not died cleanly.

I turned the flashlight off and kept walking. I wondered if it had been Foster I'd heard screaming, and what had happened to the others, taking less care with my feet as I hastened away from the site of the bloody death.

I'd gotten the direction almost right, emerging onto the track a little way below the trucks just as the moon was unveiled by the shifting clouds They were both there, so clearly no one else had fled this way, but there was one who should have already been here... My strides became longer until I was practically running up towards them, a fierce snarl on my face. I was still several feet away when I saw a dark shape, barely distinguishable from the shadows cast by the moon's dim illumination. Slowing, I flicked the flashlight on again with slight trepidation.

It was Carver. Or at least, I thought it was, from the clothes. There was certainly no identifying him from his face.

Illogically, I looked down at the body with renewed hatred. He'd killed Caesar, and now he was already dead, beyond my reach. I drew back my foot and kicked him in the side, as hard as I could. The body jerked stiffly.

I went still, the scientist in me overcoming the griever. Crouching down, I poked at the arms, which were broken, and the legs, which weren't. Both were stiff.

 _Huh._

If rigour mortis had already set in, he must have been dead for several hours. Had it been that long since the apes had come down this way? How could I know?

In a second, I was up on my feet, jogging back the way I'd come. It took only minutes for me to retrace my steps to Foster's body, which was still limp and malleable. Not stiff. I closed his eyes before making my way slowly back to the trucks again.

Carver had died before Foster. By a significant degree of time. Looking down at the body, I forced myself to think. His hat had been found by the assault rifle. But why would he have brought a rifle? He'd had a shotgun. I doubted he would have been able to smuggle two guns up here. And he hadn't even know where the apes' home was. He would have had to follow us up there, and then somehow find a way, unseen, to a place from where he could have shot Caesar, and then escaped back down here, and been caught, hours before Foster had died. It didn't add up. I took a breath and let it out.

Carver hadn't killed Caesar.

I leant against the truck as that sank in. Carver hadn't killed Caesar. And everyone else had been there with me so it couldn't have been them. The odds of any of the other humans finding their way up here were slim to none. So maybe it hadn't been a human at all.

 _Ape not kill ape_.

My fists clenched convulsively. _But the gun..._ The _human_ gun, as Caesar's son had so astutely pointed out. If none of Malcolm's group had brought it up, then one of the apes must have slipped away and...

S _lipped away_...

Koba. His looks. His anger. His _absences_.

I knew it. In my heart, I knew it. Koba. He'd stolen the gun, probably from Fort Point, killed Caesar and set up the humans. Now he was leading the apes against the city and he knew where to get guns on the way.

I was running for my truck instantly, teeth gritted at the time it took to turn it around, then I was off, flying down the road, back towards the city that I thought I would never return to again.


	17. Encounters of a Mixed Kind

The darkness lessened as I crossed the bridge. Street lights were a marvel, and I turned the headlights off as soon as I could. With the windows open, I slowed down as I reached the end of the bridge, peering down over side at the armoury. It was quiet and still. Gunning the engine again, I sped off the bridge and hung a left onto the road that would lead me down to it, making sure to turn the truck around before I killed the engine.

For a few minutes, I sat, listening hard. Silence. I jumped out of the truck with my gun in my hand, leaving the door open. I crept closer, and my stomach turned over. The apes had been here already. There were bodies, flung carelessly aside like trash. I didn't look, skirting past them, my eyes sharp for movement as I crept up to the warehouse doors. A few lights were on inside, just enough for my eyes to pick out the strewn boxes, all of them empty.

My stomach turned over.

Not good. Not good for anyone.

An explosion, like a distant firework, but a hundred times the magnitude, made me duck instinctively, and I turned to look south-east, towards the colony base. _So not good_. It reminded me of the sound of the Alpha-Omega groups throwing homemade bombs into quarantines. I gritted my teeth. No time to think about that now.

Now sure that there were no more apes left here, I shoved my pistol back into its holster, though I left the false pocket gaping open, so I'd have easy access. Then I strode forwards, moving systematically through the boxes, pushing aside those that had been stripped, assessing what was left.

The apes had taken most of the assault rifles, but they seemed to have overlooked the pistols. I took one as a backup, and gathered as many spare clips as I could find, loading them with bullets, then shoving two more boxes of ammo into my pockets as well. Snagging a pair of binoculars, I strode back out towards the truck, but the sight of a familiar face made me stop. Nick. He'd fought back; his knuckles were bruised and the sandy ground was scuffed when he'd tried to drag himself away. The whole area was littered with ape tracks, though the occasional human footprint overlaid them...

I crouched down, frowning. There were human tracks on top of the ape ones. Humans had been here after the apes. Had they hidden well, or arrived afterwards? Where had they gone? I hurried back up towards the road and found what I'd missed on my way in. Huge, sweeping tracks, leading up the hill, partially obscured by my truck, though the tread was twice the size, and much further apart. _Tank_. My brain spat the word out, and I couldn't see any evidence to the contrary. It just kept getting better and better.

BANG!

I leapt a foot into the air, heart hammering as I twisted, fumbling my pistol slightly as I pulled it out, chambering a round as my wide eyes darted, searching for the threat.

It was an ape. I levelled my pistol right at them, finger on the trigger... and hesitated.

 _Caesar wouldn't want this._

But Caesar was dead!

The ape stared back at me, their eyes wide. She—for I thought they looked to be a female—was standing upright by the open back door to my truck, but facing away from it, not towards it, as if she was leaving, rather than entering. She took a step backwards, but I took one forwards, reaffirming my grip on the gun.

She would tell the other apes that I was here. Still, I hesitated.

For Caesar! I flexed my fingers again. I could do this. There was the blood of half my own species on my hands, surely I could kill this one ape! Didn't Caesar deserve to be avenged?

Or did he deserve to be remembered? To have his wishes honoured? He would _not_ have wanted this. I couldn't kill her for Caesar. But I could spare her for him.

I lowered my gun. The ape looked from it to me several times, then took another hesitant step back. I mirrored her, retreating as well.

"For Caesar," I whispered, and the words rang true. When I looked up again, the ape was gone. I stood for another second, then paced over to the truck. I could now see the depression in the back where she had been hiding. Shaking my head, I slammed the door shut, and jumped into the front seat before hesitating.

 _So what now?_ Maybe I should have left. That had been my original plan when I'd thought Carver was responsible. I had been going to make him pay, then get as far away as I could. Now... Now I knew the real culprit not only lived, but was using Caesar's death to incite war, and build his own power. I had to stop Koba. I _wanted_ to stop him.

But how? I thought of our last encounter. I couldn't afford to make the same mistake again. I needed a plan, a way to get to him. Leaning my head forwards again the steering wheel, I closed my eyes, trying to think. I wouldn't go in half-cocked and unprepared this time. I needed to kill him.

And if I did? What would the other apes see? Their leader killed by one human, the one who stepped up to replace and avenge him killed by another. It would only fuel their rage. So I had to reveal the truth first, to destabilise Koba.

I opened my eyes again. The pieces were beginning to link up. One thing led to another.

How could I prove that Koba had been the one to kill Caesar? I grimaced. No. I didn't even know it for certain myself. Something else then. Could I prove that it hadn't been a human, or at least present enough evidence for that argument?

I rubbed my eyes. It was all swirling around, the neat, connected lines splintering into shards. I was so tired.

Another explosion made me jump, and I made a decision. I couldn't stay here. I had to find out what was going on. Dumping all the ammo onto the passenger seat, I hesitated, considering going back in for more. I decided against it. I couldn't bring myself to shoot one ape; more ammo wasn't going to change that. I had as much as I was likely to get a chance to use. Slamming the door shut, I fired up the engine and sped back up to the highway.

.

.

The colony was burning. I could see the pillar of smoke rising against the slowly paling sky from fifteen blocks away, where I left the truck just off Route 101 and began to run down the road that had once been Sutter Street, a couple of blocks over from California Street, trying to approach the colony from the side. I'd forgotten the noises that the dead city made whilst I'd been in the forest. Every clang of flapping metal made me jump. I kept to the south side of the street, crouching behind parked cars as I made my way closer to the colony, following the trail of smoke as the sun began to rise properly.

I could see Market Street ahead of me, and knew that once I reached the intersection, and turned left, I would be able to see the colony. My steps slowed at the prospect, even though I was desperate to know what was happening. I was still two blocks away when a door to my right was flung open.

"Hey! In here! Not that way, they're still there. It's not... Oh."

I'd jumped into the shadow of a rusted car at the movement but looked up at the human voice. It was Nathan, the doctor, who looked out at me.

"It's you." His voice was suddenly a lot colder. I was beyond caring. Scuttling over to the building, I put my back to the bricks, looking back and forth.

"What happened?" I asked urgently.

"Don't you already know?"

"No," I snapped, "I don't. So either tell me or go back inside and hide, because I haven't got time for this shit."

There was a gasp behind him, and he looked backwards, revealing a sliver of the dark room behind him as he did so. Eight sets of eyes gleamed out of the dark, three of them children's.

"I don't have to tell you anything," Nathan hissed, glaring at me.

I looked at him for a second. He knew.

"Who was it?" I asked. Denny. Surely it had been Denny. There was no way Kemp had got back before me; even if he had survived, he would be on foot. The only other one who'd known was Dreyfus, and I doubted that he had been the one to tell people. That left Denny. The realisation hurt more than I'd expected.

Nathan hadn't answered me, and I shook my head. "Whatever. Look, stay here. Stay quiet, stay hidden. Don't come out. Not for anything. _Anything_ , understand?"

I walked away.

"HEY!" Angry footsteps followed the shout, and I wheeled back, throwing a fist into Nathan's stomach. There was no force behind it, but it shocked him into sucking in a breath, and I used the time to shove him back against the wall and cover his mouth with my hand.

"I don't care," I snarled, shoving my face up against his. "You get me? I don't care what you know, or what you think. I've got better things to be doing."

Snaking one hand around the back of his neck, I squeezed tightly, forcing his head down as I threw him back through the door, then turned my gaze to the others. They withdrew in fear.

"Stay quiet," I repeated. "Stay hidden."

I didn't slam the door but pushed it closed as quietly as I could. Then I returned to my 'better things'.

.

.

The view from Market Street wasn't as clear as I'd been hoping. I could see the dance of flames, blurring the building and the lightening sky, but not much else. Bent double, I raced across the street, skidding to a halt behind a fire truck that had been run half into a tower block. Raising my stolen binoculars, I crouched down and peered around the back corner of the truck, focussing in on the base of the colony. There were definitely figures moving, but between the heat haze and the debris between us, I couldn't see anything more than a line of bobbing heads. I couldn't tell if they were human or ape.

Gritting my teeth, I dropped the lenses from my eyes and turned away, jogging down the side of the ruined building. It took me 3 minutes to go the back way round to where Beale Street came back out to Market Street, one block down from the colony. From here, I could hear the flames, smell the smoke in the air.

Jumping in through one of the windows of the building that had once housed Pacific Gas & Electric, I crept silently through the interior to the stairs and began to climb.

From a broken window in the northeast corner of the sixth floor, I could finally see what was happening.

Humans. Humans fighting fires. My fingers slipped with my relief.

We had won the fight. Koba hadn't managed to lead the apes into killing all the humans. Steadying my hand on the ledge, I looked again. The gates were caved in, and there were bodies flung around like confetti, and...

I lowered the binoculars with a frown, sure I must be seeing wrong but the view was the same, enhanced or not. There were apes watching the humans fight the fires. Apes with guns. I swallowed, examining every single one, but I couldn't see Koba anywhere among them.

Lowering the binoculars, I kept watching as I ran it through in my head.

Nathan, hiding with the others, saying 'they're still there'. The humans working under armed guards. We hadn't won the fight. The apes had.

A flash of bright colour, a red deeper than the flames, caught my eye, and my heart leapt as I shoved my eyes back against the binoculars. There was only one person with hair that colour... The view became blurred.

I was right and wished I was wrong. It was Sophie, lying on her back just inside the colony, barely visible past the tank that blocked the gates. Her face was swollen, bruised, and distinctly dead.

I squeezed my eyes tightly shut, wishing I could un-see everything in the last 12 hours, wishing I could erase it all. Moisture ran down my face, a mixture of my sweat and tears, as I opened my eyes and saw another familiar face. Denny.

My heart soared, and I forgot all else. I forgot his anger on learning the truth about my past. I forgot that he'd probably told that secret to everyone. He was alive. Seemingly having just dumped a bucket of water onto a patch of steaming wall, he was now glaring up at one of the apes supervising. My hands tightened.

"Don't," I breathed. "Don't do it."

For a wonder, he seemed to hear me, turning away with a dark expression, joining the stream of people heading back towards the sea to refill their various containers.

I gave a silent groan of relief, slumping backwards, away from the window to sit on the floor. I looked up, and I saw something. More apes. High, high above me, moving in the steel beams of the unfinished tower. I raised the binoculars again with trembling hands.

Koba. I could tell without even seeing his face. I knew it was him.

He stood, with such arrogant surety, above a hunched orangutan at the end of a whole line of apes. It took movement from the chimp next to him to get the orangutan to hold out his hand, the same gesture of supplication I'd seen given to Caesar, the same gesture Caesar had given to Will. My lip twitched into a snarl, but I kept silent with an effort, watching as Koba moved on to stand beside a crouched chimp. His hands moved, signing, but the other ape didn't respond, barely seeming to notice.

It was only when they turned slightly that I saw the hint of red wounds across their chest. Caesar's son, too caught in his grief to see what Koba was doing, to know how much Caesar would have hated for it to come to this.

I refocused on Koba, who was now looking out over the city with far too much triumph in his stance, and felt my heart harden. Part of me wished that I'd taken the time to look for a sniper rifle in the armoury, but with only my pistols and a knife, there was nothing I could do. _Yet_.


	18. His Legacy

I retreated away from the windows, to an internal office, and leant back against the wall to catch a couple of hours sleep. I was out in seconds, but it was not a restful interlude. Twice I jerked up, a gasp on my lips as I saw a dark figure fall. After that, I didn't try to sleep, just sitting back and staring at the opposite wall, letting the thoughts come.

Caesar was small again, his face returned to the cheeky adolescent expression he'd had when I'd first met him, looking innocently down at Will and I, who'd walked in on him hanging from the roof of the kitchen to reach the cookie jar. Will was outraged, but I was crying with laughter.

Through the film of tears, I looked past the scene, and Caesar was there again, older, more serious, worn but free. Sophie stood behind his shoulder, and Denny off to the side. I reached for them, but none of them reached back. Sophie turned away, and Caesar shook his head. He threw something to me, and I snatched it out the air.

It was a black chess piece, the king, its surface covered with sticky red blood. I looked up, and it was the teenaged Caesar across from me, having beaten me five times in a row, and I looked up at Will with fear and wonder in my eyes. There was blood coming from his nose, his face turning pale as he fell, crashing through the branches towards the forest floor.

I jerked awake again, wiping my face and pushing to my feet. There was no more rest for me here. I made a quick check of my weapons; two pistols, spare clips for both, and my long knife, then slipped out of the office, jogging down the stairs.

At the bottom, I stopped, listening to a faint patter of feet, accompanied by an ape's hooting call. I hesitated then flinched as something thudded only feet away from me. Risking a peek around the corner, my stomach turned over as I saw three apes moving slowly through the building. I looked across to the window I'd come in through, but there was no way I'd be able to get there unseen. I took another glance at the apes, then withdrew. Three of them, but only one armed. I could take them all down with my pistol from this range. Caesar's bright eyes flashed before me, their gaze reproachful. I cursed but sighed.

Poking an eye around the corner of the wall, I watched the apes, waiting. The one with the rifle only had a loose grip on it and was more intent on watching his fellows than his surroundings. I might just have a chance, but only if I had both hands free. Holstering my pistol, I sank down a few inches, waiting for him to take one more step. One more... just one more. One—

I leapt. Seizing the ape's wrist in one hand, I delivered a hard blow to his elbow. He screeched, louder than I'd anticipated, but released the gun. I snatched it up, jumping backwards and swinging it between the three apes in a clear threat.

"This isn't what he would have wanted," I said as I backed away. The apes were staring at me in stunned silence. "He only wanted peace and freedom. You follow this path, you destroy all he stood for. Choose another way."

I felt the window behind me and lowered the gun. Ejecting the clip, I dropped the main part of the rifle to the ground.

"For Caesar," I said, and held their eyes for one more second before turning and vaulting out of the window, the clip held tightly in my fist as I sprinted away.

.

.

Twice more I ambushed groups of apes, using thrown bricks to distract them, then darting around corners and through fire doors to prevent them following me afterwards. Only one tried to pursue me, all the others apparently too stunned by my words to react,

I dared to hope, they believed what I said to them. Those two encounters felt less like a victory when I had to hunker down and hide as larger groups of apes moved through the city, or when I saw them shepherding other humans along, screeching and making feinting runs at them, teeth bared. Those were the times when it was hardest to stay silent and unresponsive.

The whole time, I kept watching for the one ape I wouldn't turn away from, but there was no sign of Koba.

It was Caesar's son who caught my eye, moving swiftly even though his gaze was downcast, a rifle over his back. He was at the back of a larger group, another juvenile besides him - the one Carver had shot. I hesitated for only a fraction of a second before I took off running towards the back door of the store I'd been hiding in.

It very quickly became clear that I hadn't a hope of keeping up with the apes, who moved purposefully onwards whilst I had to find alternate route around the back streets, but once I had an idea of their direction, I let them go and found my own way, hoping that their goal would be obvious once I got close enough.

If I could convince Caesar's son that humans weren't responsible for his father's death and that he shouldn't be following Koba, maybe some of the other apes would rally to his side. I winced at that thought. Would Caesar thank me for halting a war between humans and apes only to spark one between different factions of his own people? Were there any good options left?

.

.

I reached the intersection of Golden Gate Avenue and Route 101 with a stitch in my side and a headache, wishing that I'd brought some water with me. Turning left, I prowled south, freezing as I reached the next block and heard screams, both human and ape, from ahead. Fingering my pistol, I crept up to the next intersection and looked across a wide open space at City Hall.

It wasn't that surprising really, I rationalised. People had never lost the ideology surrounding the official spaces. City Hall was one of the least-looted locations in the city, for when we'd ripped apart every other building we could get into, no one had wanted to be the one accused of taking down this hallmark. Perhaps people had thought that one day a new Mayor would occupy it, even though Dreyfus had refused to occupy the space. So, all things considered, it wasn't a shock that people had come here to hide. I could only hope the maze of interconnected offices and filing rooms would offer a good chance of people being overlooked in the apes' search.

Crouching at the corner opposite, I measured the distance between myself and the walls and bit my lip. It was a lot of open ground, and it would only take one glance at the wrong time for me to be exposed. But Caesar's son could be in there. The twisting corridors and little rooms would be the ideal place to try and separate him from the others. And Koba might be there too.

My stomach clenched and I threw myself out, arms pumping as I raced across the space, rolling my feet with bent knees to try and be as quiet as possible. The slap of my shoes was still obscenely loud to me, as was the sound of my heart pumping in my ears but I reached the walls without any screeches of alarm. Finding a way in was more difficult, for although there were broken windows aplenty, the shards of glass around the bottom were still sharp, and I was wary of knocking them for fear of the apes hearing the noise. In the end, it was the tension of being exposed against the white stone that made me hoist myself up on the weathered walls, slithering my way inside an office, picking my way carefully over the dangerous pieces of glass.

Inside, the noise level seemed to double. There were screams, distinctly human, echoing through the partially open door, wails of despair and fear that made my teeth clench. Setting one eye to the gap between door and frame, I flinched when an ape knuckled past. Once they'd gone, I pulled the door open, glanced both ways and took off in a silent jog to the left, towards a sign for the stairs.

Climbing up to the second, then the third floor, tested my nerves, and twice I flattened myself back against the wall, listening to running steps approaching, only for them to veer off at what sounded like the last second.

There were clearly more people here than I'd realised, and more apes too. Most of them seemed to be running blindly, fear overcoming their reasoning. I could feel my own nervous terror threatening to do the same, but I tensed my shoulders and held to my goal. I waited for another mixed group to dash past, the apes working to cut off the humans' escape, before I slipped out the other way, running in a crouch, making use of the cover provided by the balustrades.

A shriek from behind had me diving into an office, but it descended lower, followed by howls of triumph, then an odd quiet. Perhaps the apes had finished clearing this floor.

Darting back out from the office, I crouched behind a pillar and withdrew my binoculars from my pocket, sitting back on one of my heels as I looked out, scanning the retreating faces below for Caesar's son but with no luck.

The sudden scream of fear and rage wouldn't have been out of place, except it was not human. I almost dropped the binoculars, looking around wildly for the source. It came into view directly opposite me.

Koba. My hands clenched convulsively. It was Koba. Right there, only feet away from me, dragging something behind him with one hand. I held my breath as he crouched down and picked up a dark bundle, heaving it over the railing.

I leapt to my feet, leaning over the balcony, oblivious to the fact that Koba might see me as I watched the other ape fall three stories, screaming all the way. The sound cut off with a sickening crunch and a growing pool of blood. I stared, shocked beyond words as I looked from the dead ape to his murderer. Koba had turned away, towards a crowd of apes with Caesar's son at the front, looking stricken.

I whirled away, pressing my back against the pillar as I gasped for breath.

"Caesar gone," Koba growled, his voice carrying through the sudden silence to me. "Apes follow Koba now."

"IS THIS WHAT THEY WILL FOLLOW YOU TO?" I roared, the sound more than I'd dared to hope for, though it ripped my dry throat coming out. "WHAT HAPPENED TO APE NOT KILL APE, KOBA? DOES THAT NOT APPLY TO YOU?" I had to stop, to take a breath, covering my mouth to try and hold back a cough. "Caesar would have been ashamed of you all," I continued, no longer able to shout, but projecting my voice as far as I could. "Do you think this is what he would have wanted as his legacy?"

"Humans kill Caesar!" Koba shouted. He didn't seem to have moved.

I took a breath, clenched my fists against their shaking, and moved slowly out from behind the pillar. "I don't believe that," I said, looking straight past Koba, to Caesar's son. "None of us had rifles up there."

"Avenge Caesar—" Koba started.

" This has nothing to do with what he would have wanted," I cut across him loudly, still looking only at Caesar's son. "This isn't vengeance for Caesar."

Finally, I changed my gaze and met Koba's one good eye. "This is your revenge. How many have to die for you to get it?"

"Humans will pay!" Koba spat.

I met his gaze without showing the triumph I felt. "I wasn't talking about humans." There was a moment of ringing silence. "I know what you did," I said, no longer watching the other apes, too focused on Koba. "I can't prove it, but I know."

"Humans... lie. You lie."

We stared at each other, accepting the other's truth; I knew what he'd done, but I had no proof, no tangible evidence.

Very deliberately, I dropped my eyes, leaning forwards over the balcony to look down at the body below. Then I looked back up at Koba and raised an eyebrow.

His upper lip pulled back, revealing the vicious canines that I'd already felt in my flesh. With a feral scream, he leapt up onto the railing, flinging himself sideways, across 8 feet of open space to grab hold of the wall, halving the distance between us.

Immediately, several of the apes bounded up to the place he had been, raising their guns, and began to fire.

With a shriek, I dove back behind the pillar, one arm over my face as bullets zipped around me, punching into the walls all around me. Praying as I never had before, I bent double, one hand still over my head, and sprinted out from the cover, hurtling back towards the stairs. I did not return fire.

There was a screech from behind me, and the shooting stopped. I hoped the obstruction had slowed Koba down but didn't dare look back to check, throwing myself down the stairs half a flight at a time, putting my long legs to the test. It was a swift descent, if not a precise one, but not swift enough.

I made the mistake of glancing back up as I reached the bottom, watching for Koba's descent, and when I looked forward again, a figure blocked my path. The chimp raised a rifle and I threw myself forwards, forcing the barrel to the side as it exploded, deafening me.

I wished I had a pair of Denny's ear protectors. Somehow, one of my hands managed to find the clip eject, and the sudden silence was just as painful to my ears as the shooting had been.

"For Caesar!" I shouted over my shoulder as the clip dropped to the ground and I leapt on, twisted away from the chimp's grabbing fingers. There was a group of humans over to the right, surrounded by apes pushing them towards the main doors, and they all looked up as I blasted through the other side of the hall and shoved my way through a door just as more bullets flew worryingly close. Kicking the door almost shut behind me, I heard the wood get instantly shredded, but I was more focused on the window ahead of me, its glass already shattered. I didn't stop to think about the glass, or what might be on the other side, or the five-foot drop. I jumped up onto a long-abandoned desk and leapt through the window as more bullets slashed the air around me, giving a whoop of adrenaline and fear as I flew.


	19. Consequences

I was flailing before I hit the ground, not having realised just how far down it was, especially when jumping from atop a desk. I felt the impact twice and barely managed to avoid breaking an ankle as I rolled sideways, coming to a halt with sharp pains in my knees, elbows and side. With a groan and a hiss of pain, I pushed to my feet, ready to run again, but the sight before me made me freeze, staring in horror.

Somehow I'd got turned around in the big building, and come out on the other side to where I'd gone in. The wide space that stretched all around City Hall wasn't so empty here. There were rows of trees, and a whole sea of figures, all of whom had turned towards me. Humans in a single mass, some sitting, some standing, all huddled together and surrounded by apes on all sides, three or four deep, and most of them armed.

I swallowed, every breath searing through my side. For another second the tableau held. Then everything broke.

Several of the ape guards broke away, shuffling towards me with their guns raised. Before they could do anything more, there was a sudden movement above me, and two apes came tumbling out of the same window I had, with three more filling the empty space, and raising their rifles. I was staring at my death and the thrill it sent through my chest was not fear.

Even as my mind froze, my body did not. The muscle memory Denny had promised kicked in, and my pistol was in my hands. Even as I saw the flashes from the apes' rifles, I pulled the trigger.

The explosion re-deafened the little hearing I'd regained in one ear, but the apes at the window fell back, whether struck or for cover, I wasn't sure, and I lowered my sights to the apes on the ground, who quickly scrambled back into bushes as I fired on them too.

I stepped back and felt my left knee give under me. Not good.

Turning, I raced anyway, aware of the apes off to the left, but unable to shoot at them for the sheer number of bodies over there. I would surely hit someone. So I ducked and ran, feeling my knee collapse rather than bend on every step, and a pain in my side that I was now sure was _not_ from rolling over a rock.

There was a single burst of gunfire from the left, then a sudden upsurge in noise that reached my ringing ears. I glanced sideways and nearly tripped over my own feet. The humans were revolting, launching themselves at the apes, drawing attention away from me. Several had even managed to break out of the circle and were running full pelt towards the tree line, much as I was.

There was chaos everywhere. Apes were screeching in anger, humans in fear or triumph.

"Run!" someone shrieked. "Run, run, run!"

I did as they advised, putting my head down and sprinting away as best as I could on my popped knee. The cheering got suddenly louder but then there was a burst of gunfire and the cheers turned to screams before dying away into silence. I couldn't help myself, looking back over my shoulder. The humans were cowering on the ground, the apes firmly back in control, guns waving everywhere. There were three chasing me. I shot wildly backwards, and they skidded about a little but didn't slow down much. I was so close... the trees were inches away...

I reached out to grab a trunk to swing myself around and out of direct view when another hail of bullets tore towards me. I saw them coming, moving from left to right towards my outstretched hand, but for all my eyes could see, my arm was too slow to move out of the way.

It felt like being punched. My hand was knocked off course, jerking away and I stumbled with the shock of it, lurching behind the tree. The pain hit me a second later and I clenched my jaw shut, holding the scream inside, though it still blew out through my nose and the noise carried past my sealed lips.

Leaning around the tree trunk, I emptied the rest of the clip back towards the apes through a film of tears, then shoved the empty gun back into my pocket, ripping my sweater off over my head and one arm. Balling it up around my hand was another lesson in pain, and I hunched over as I staggered on. The pain in my knee and side seemed insignificant now.

Pressing my hand into my stomach, I broke into a jog, stumbling through the trees, weaving back and forth in an attempt to throw off my pursuers, though I couldn't hear any sound of them behind me. More bullets zipped past me, and I heard dull thuds in the trees but none of them seemed to hit me and I ran faster, following the cover along to the public library and darting around the corner. I gave myself five seconds to breathe, peering one eye around the corner. The apes had slowed, searching the undergrowth under the trees. I raised my eyes, looking back to the city hall. A figure stalked out along the pole that still held the tattered stars and stripes. Even without the binoculars, I was sure I recognised him.

One of the apes screeched and I flinched, dropping my gaze, but they were all racing off to the other side of the building. I heard a human cry of despair, and my heart twisted, but there was nothing more I could do. The rest of the apes were starting to move the humans, shuffling them up to the north, back towards the colony. I backed away, out of sight, and jogged on, my hand still clamped to my stomach to minimise any jostling of the wound I didn't want to think about.

.

— — —

.

Blue Eyes watched the humans being moved with a numbness that extended from his body to his mind. There was a gaping hole that Ash would once have filled, mirroring the absence of his father. And the human woman, Jac... Father had trusted her, and there was courage in how she'd challenged Koba, the same courage Ash'd had, but her words disturbed him. It was so much easier to follow Koba's anger. And surely she'd been lying about the humans' guilt. One of them must have brought the gun; they'd already proved themselves capable of doing so.

But Blue Eyes remembered that incident, how the woman had seemed to be on the apes' side, how she'd protected his little brother... He looked again at the smear of blood where she'd fallen after jumping from the building. He doubted she would protect anyone again.

Her words had stirred unease amongst the other apes too, especially after Koba had killed Ash. He hadn't expected the older bonobo to go that far. None of them had. But the unease wasn't enough to displace the fear.

.

Koba made them take the humans almost all the way back to the second place they'd attacked, the tower with exposed bones at the top. Blue Eyes didn't like it. He loved the buildings, their intelligence and grandeur, their smooth stone facade, but the apes didn't belong there. It was a human place. The more he thought about it, the more he wished they could all go back to the forest.

He barely listened to Koba's speech, watching the humans being forced into cages and fingering the human gun he carried. It felt foreign in his hands.

Another ape bumped him roughly and Blue Eyes turned, watching them all move off. Hunting more humans, no doubt. What was the point though?

He stopped suddenly. A large vehicle, like the truck the humans had taken up into the forest, but much longer, and taller, and inside...

' _Maurice?_ ' he signed, a trickle of shock seeping through his numbness.

The orangutan looked back at him with doleful eyes. ' _Koba said we're too loyal to your father. Protect yourself._ '

Blue Eyes glanced back, looking up at Koba and his followers, sat above them all. Protect himself? What about protecting everyone else? He wished his father was there.

.

— — —

.

I threw up twice from the pain that came in waves before admitting I had to stop. I found a puddle of water on a caved-in car roof and drank as much as I could, ignoring the acrid taste of rust. Then I staggered into the nearest building. I made it halfway up the stairs and could go no further, sinking down on the landing. I had to stay in control. Couldn't go to pieces now. Sitting against the wall, I stretched my left leg out in front of me, trying to find something else to focus on. I needed to refill the empty clip of my pistol. I could do that. It took a supreme amount of effort to pull the pistol and a handful of ammo out of my pockets, every twist of my waist sending shoots of agony from my side, but my hand was shaking too much to push the bullets into the clip anyway.

Setting it aside, I took a litany of my hurts. My knee was wrenched, but it was a familiar pain. The joint had always been weak and had popped like this before. Half an hour stretched out, and it would be okay, though no doubt it would be mildly tender for a few days. I had been shot on my left side, at the bottom of my ribs, but it was only a graze, bloody and sore but not seriously. And my left hand... I didn't have the courage to pull the sweater off and have a look. My stomach clenched at the very thought.

Oddly, my right side seemed to be uninjured, other than a slight poking in my leg... I reached down and felt something smooth and flat digging one corner into my thigh. I pulled it out. It was the photograph of Caesar and Will. I'd forgotten that I'd taken it from my pack. Very carefully, I placed it on the floor next to me.

I sat, staring down the stairs at the strip of daylight and watched it creep across the floor. This was my end. I knew that, could admit it now. I was out-matched in every way. The apes hadn't rallied at my accusations of Koba. It seemed there was little hope for them. I'd failed, but I wouldn't let them continue on this exponential fall. I had one more attempt left in me. I would kill Koba. Consequences be damned, I would kill him. As soon as I'd rested.

.

— — —

.

Blue Eyes hadn't believed the human man's claim. His father was dead. He'd been shot, he'd fallen. He'd died. But there was no lie in the man's eyes and too much hope in Blue Eyes's heart. He'd been berating himself for a fool the whole time he'd followed the man back under the city, away from the rest of the apes, away from Koba.

Now the man had stopped, hurrying into a random house. Blue Eyes followed more slowly, cautious of a trap.

"I got it. How is he?" the man said, as he turned left into a room. Blue Eyes couldn't help his curiosity, and walked forwards, stepping around the door frame, past the boy who was watching him with guarded eyes. The man was there, handing his pack off to the woman with hair coloured like the sun. And further round the room, lying on a long cushioned seat... his father.

Caesar's mouth pulled upwards at the sight of him, but Blue Eyes was beyond joy. The relief washed all else out of him, except for the sudden and equally powerful wave of guilt. Blue Eyes realised he was still holding the human gun. He set it aside.

"Your mother... brother... safe?"

' _For now,'_ Blue Eyes signed back. His eyes dropped to the wound, high in his father's chest. He rounded back on the humans, teeth bared in a snarl.

"No," his father spoke from behind him, and he turned back. "Not human." Their eyes met. "Koba."

Blue Eyes looked away. ' _Human woman said._ '

His father made a move to sign but stopped with a grimace. "Jac?" he asked.

Blue Eyes nodded.

"Jac?" the other woman, Ellie, asked from behind him. "She got out?"

Blue Eyes ignored her, looking to his father. ' _In city. Challenged Koba. Hurt._ '

"Find her," his father said.

"Caesar," Ellie stepped forwards, her voice gentle but insistent. "We have to do this now."

"Son," his father said, holding out a hand. Blue Eyes took it at once, returning the sure grip he knew so well. "Find her."

Blue Eyes nodded.


	20. Life and Loss

**A/N:** There is a  warning part way through for mild description of gore, but I've put **** before it, so if you don't want to read, just go to the end, and I'll summarise for you.

No more description after ** but some discussion of surgical procedures

.

.

My eyes opened very reluctantly. I hadn't dreamed this time. Blinking slowly, my eyes watched a shadow moving along the floor. Its swinging gait was not human. For a second, I remained still, my eyes shifting to the photo on the floor. I was so tired, and everything hurt so much. But Caesar's killer was still out there. Who else would do anything about it? I moved, reaching for my second pistol, and raising it to point at the bottom of the stairwell. My hand was shaking and I couldn't make it stop.

The ape moved into view and his two eyes looked up at me over the fresh wound on his cheek. Caesar's son. I let my hand drop, the gun falling to the ground beside me. I looked at the picture once more as the ape padded slowly up the stairs to crouch on the other side of the landing. His eyes went to the picture. It was an effort to pick it up and hold it out to him, but I did so. He took it, looking down at the image captured forever.

"Father..." he said, his voice rough but surprisingly soft.

I nodded, leaning my head back as I watched him. "Yes," I confirmed. "That's him."

"Asking for you," the ape said.

I looked at him, wondering what he meant, and if he knew how the words sounded.

He shifted under my confused gaze, holding the photo back out to me. "Father asking for you," he said.

I reached out and took the picture. Did he mean Koba? Had he transferred his idea of 'father' so quickly?

"Caesar's dead," I said slowly.

The ape shook his head. "Alive. Wants you. Come." He stood upright.

I looked down at the picture one more time then shoved it hastily into my pocket and reached a hand up to the ape without having to think about it. He took it and pulled me to my feet.

"Where is he?" I asked.

The chimp looked away but seemed unable to stop himself making a quick sign, touching his fingers to his mouth then his cheek. My stomach flipped. I recognised that sign, had seen Will and Caesar use it so many times that it had been impossible not to pick it up.

"Home?"

He looked at me, and I knew exactly where Caesar was.

.

.

As I'd hoped, my knee had sorted itself out, and so we set off at a quick pace. Caesar's son would dart ahead, looking around for other apes, and I followed behind, directing him up Route 101 in search of my truck. It was halfway to our destination, and louder than walking, but it was faster. The chimp seemed uncertain about the vehicle, especially when I started the engine, but he stayed still as I drove us across towards Will's house, my teeth clenched as I stared straight ahead.

There was another truck sat on the street outside, and Malcolm, Ellie, and Alexander all came to their feet on the front step as I stepped down and strode towards them.

"Jac," Ellie said, half-reaching towards me, her hands red. "What happened to you?!"

I shook my head, dismissing her concern. "He's alive?" I asked

They all nodded together. "I had to operate," Ellie said. "He's still out, but he's alive. What happened to your hand?"

I ignored her question, striding past them all into the house.

He was lying on the couch in the living room, his eyes closed, but his chest moving. My knees buckled, and I caught myself one-handed on the doorframe, lowering myself down to the floor.

I dragged myself across the floor to the end of the couch, close enough to touch Caesar's leg, but I restrained myself. His son moved to the other end, crouching on the floor beside his shoulder, where I could just make out the evidence of Ellie's neat stitches. I wasn't sure when I'd started crying.

.

.

A touch on my shoulder made me flinch. I'd lost track of time, staring at Caesar, revelling in every breath that moved his chest. Looking around, I found Ellie crouching beside me.

"You're covered in blood," she said gently, raising a damp cloth and taking my chin as she wiped at my face. I blinked.

"He'll be okay?"

"He's very strong," she said, with a smile.

I nodded absently, staring through her.

"What happened?" she asked me.

"I was stupid," I said eventually. "I was stupid several times over."

"Brave."

We both looked around at the ape.

"You were brave," he said in his soft voice. I couldn't hold his gaze.

"What happened to your hand?" Ellie asked me.

I looked down. Blood had soaked all the way through my sweater in places, dotting the dark grey with darker red. "I think it got shot," I said, and my voice shook. "My side too." Ellie stared at me in horror.

"I'll need to take a look," she said, none of the emotion in her face coming through in her tone.

I looked away. I didn't want to think about it. She retreated to the other side of the room.

"What's your name?" I asked the ape. I'd spent too long thinking of him as 'Caesar's son'.

He looked at me and pointed at his eyes.

I frowned. "Eyes?"

He snorted and tapped his face again.

I looked closer "Blue Eyes?"

He nodded.

I smiled, looking past him. "Your father's mother, we called her Bright Eyes. Her eyes were like Caesar's, all flecked with gold."

Ellie was back, crouching in front of me.

"How did you find me?" I asked Blue Eyes.

"Saw blood," he said. "Knew you injured. Couldn't have gone far. Smelled blood."

"I need to see," Ellie said gently. I twisted around, lifting my elbow to bare my side to her. She hesitated, then leant forward, poking at the wound. "This isn't too bad. You're lucky."

I snorted as she sat back and gave me a firm look. I sighed and held out my wrapped hand. "Do it quickly," I asked her. Her mouth tightened, and her eyes flicked to Caesar's still form.

"Shall we move into the—"

"No," I cut her off flatly.

She looked at me and didn't argue. Taking my forearm, she worked the arm of my sweater along towards my wrist, then put my forearm between my knees.

.

 ****** Warning for mild description of gore**

.

"Hold tightly," she warned me. I clenched my legs together and closed my eyes. She didn't make me wait. I felt every fibre being ripped away from where it had stuck to the blood on my hand. I nearly screamed, but held it to a silent stretch of my mouth to its limit, curling forwards, eyes squeezed tightly shut.

Ellie gasped then was silent.

I waited until I could breathe again, and opened my eyes.

Half my last finger was gone. Missing. Shorn away, leaving a mess of red blood and splintered white bone.

I wanted to look away, but couldn't. The blood was everywhere, staining all the way along my hand to my wrist, and across my fingers as well.

"Jac..." Ellie faltered. "I... I'm going to have to amputate this."

I nodded numbly, unable to meet her eyes. I couldn't look away from the butchered = wreck that had been my working finger only a few hours ago.

.

 **** Mostly safe after this**

.

"I've got some local anaesthetic, but nothing more than that," Ellie said. I nodded again. "We should move."

I finally looked away from the injury to meet her eyes. "No," I said flatly. "Do it here. Please."

She didn't look happy as she stood up and slipped out. I heard her talking to Malcolm outside and then they both came back in. Malcolm halted in the doorway.

"Jeez," he muttered. "Jac..."

"Talking about it won't make it better," I said.

He nodded, looking queasy. Together, they moved the coffee table over to the end of the couch. There was a photo frame on top of it, and I picked it up. Another one of Will and Caesar, with the former facing the camera, his smile wide and genuine. I didn't put it back as I spun around, reaching my ruined hand out onto the table as Malcolm put a lamp next to it, switching it on. The light was still shocking to me. I turned my face the other way, pressing my cheek to the arm of the couch and staring at Caesar as Ellie got herself ready.

"Small pinch," she warned me, and I closed my eyes as I felt the needle go in, holding the photo in my lap. "It'll take a few minutes to work," she said quietly and I nodded, listening to her move things around. I kept watching Caesar, aware of Blue Eyes watching me, but unwilling to meet his gaze.

"Can you feel this?" Ellie asked me.

"No," I said, after a second of no sensation at all.

She sighed, bent over the table, and started working. I didn't move, watching Caesar the entire time, with no one but Blue Eyes to see me crying.

.

.

 **A/N** : In summary \- half of Jac's last finger on her left hand had been shot off, Ellie amputates it.


	21. Strongest Branch

The house was just as I remembered. Sitting curled in an armchair that I remembered, my bandaged hand cradled in my lap, I half expected Will to walk through the door at any second. Caesar was still asleep and I stared blankly across the slowly darkening room at his still form. The local anaesthetic was wearing off, and there was a dull throbbing growing in my hand. What was left of it.

 _You're alive,_ I told myself firmly. _It could have been a lot worse._ I stood up suddenly and swayed for a second. Blue Eyes watched me from his spot on the floor next to his father, the rings of colour for which he'd been named following me. I put the framed photo down on the table next to him before slipping out of the room.

Ellie, Malcolm, and Alexander were sitting in the kitchen. Ellie half came to her feet as I stumped in, but I waved her down, moving over to the sink and turning on the tap. Water trickled out. For a second, I just stared at the marvel. Carver had been the one to keep the water running. For all his antics and his attitude, he'd done that for all of us.

I had been planning to stick my head under the tap, but I remembered where I was and turned away, taking a mug from their place in the cupboard, and putting it under the tap.

"Do you know what happened to Kemp?" I asked as I turned back around.

They exchanged glances. "No," Malcolm said. "Or Foster."

"Foster's dead," I told them dully. "I guess you found Carver by the truck?"

Malcolm scowled as Alexander looked down at the table, but I didn't apologise. This once-beautiful world had turned ugly. No point pretending otherwise. I looked away from them, and my eyes fell on the glass container on the top of the cupboard, where Caesar always used to steal cookies. I smiled even as my eyes blurred. I stepped forwards, intending to reach up and take it down, but I stopped before I could move past the table. It was heavier than it looked. I'd always needed two hands to get it down.

"So what's next?" I asked brusquely, turning back to the kitchen.

"Caesar will need time to recover," Ellie said. "And we should all rest."

I nodded. "There are bedrooms upstairs. Help yourself."

"You should rest too," Ellie said.

I nodded. "I will," I said. "I'll stay down here." I looked away, through into Will's office rather than watch them exchange another glance.

"You tired, buddy?" Malcolm asked, and I heard Alexander murmur a response. I let them leave as I walked over to Will's office. It was just as much of a mess as it had been before I'd gone up to the woods. So much had happened. How many days had it been? Three? Four? Five? I'd lost track.

"Hey."

I jumped, looking around. Apparently, Ellie hadn't gone upstairs with the others.

"Are you okay? You're... off."

With an effort, I smiled. "Yeah. Just... tired. It's been a long few days." My stomach clenched, then rumbled.

"You should rest," Ellie urged me, touching my arm lightly. "There's some food in my bag."

"Thanks," I said, knowing I wouldn't touch it.

She seemed to know it too. "I'll get some out and leave it on the table," she said. "I expect it all to be gone by the morning."

My mouth twitched. "Yes, ma'am." I watched her out of the kitchen before turning back to the office. Corners of paper under staples and drawing pins. Stacks of biology books. I recognised some of them as the same texts I'd had, so very long ago.

I heard Ellie talking quietly, then the sound of her ascending the stairs. Very slowly, mug held in my good hand, I made my way back to the front room, placing the mug beside my chair before moving over to the window. The night was deepening outside, but the city was alive again. Lights were glowing in windows, waiting for shadows to pass in front of them, and my reflection watching them, trapped inside the glass.

"See... anything?" Blue Eyes asked from behind me.

 _Just memories_. "No," I said. "It's quiet." I kept looking for another few seconds before turning back and curling into my chair. "I don't think Koba will come this far west for a while yet. We have some time."

He shifted slightly, and I saw that he'd picked up the photo of his father with Will. Holding it in one hand, he picked up some cereal bars from the table and threw them across at me.

"Ellie said... eat," he huffed. I shook my head at her determination and reached down to pick one up, taking a bite and chewing exaggeratedly.

"You want one?" I asked thickly, but he shook his head, watching his father again. My chewing slowed. They all had to eat. Where would that food be coming from? Filing the question away for later, I finished eating and felt my stomach relax in satisfaction. Kicking my legs over one of the arms of the chair, I leant my head sideways and watched the two chimps by the light of the solitary lamp.

.

.

I really didn't want to wake up. Turning my head a little, I burrowed back into the chair, waiting for the rough voice to lull me back to sleep. My eyes snapped open.

"... am to blame." Caesar was awake. It was his voice I'd heard.

Blue Eyes signed something back to him, but Caesar shook his head.

"I chose to trust him because he is ape. I always think ape better than human. I see now... how much like them we are."

My eyes went misty at his words and I swallowed.

"Where Koba now?" Caesar asked.

Blue Eyes signed again, his hands moving swiftly as I blinked my eyes clear, swinging my legs around so I was sat facing forwards. Neither of them seemed to notice.

"And those who do not follow?"

Blue Eyes signed some more, his movement becoming more jerky as I watched. Caesar shook his head.

"Not if I am weak. Ape always seek strongest branch. I must do something to stop him," Caesar huffed, trying to rise, but his face contorted in pain.

I leapt up, crossing the space in two strides.

"There's no point taking the stronger branch if it will lead you off a cliff," I said, as Blue Eyes and I pushed him back down. "They need you, your vision. And you don't have to do anything alone."

"Father..." Blue Eyes spoke up. "Let me help you."

The look Caesar gave his son was enough to make me blink back tears again.

"Let _us_ help you," I amended him, giving the younger ape a half-smile.

"No," Caesar said, looking at me. "This isn't your fight."

"Yes, it is," I said. "I've been fighting it. I'm not stopping now."

His bright eyes travelled over me, taking in the blood on my torn shirt, and my bandaged hand.

"What happened?" he asked.

"I made trouble," I said. "I got into trouble."

He gave me a look that I returned with interest.

"I thought you'd _died_ ," I told him harshly, "and I didn't believe Carver had done it. I wasn't going to let Koba take over everything. And I'm still not going to. You're not weak. But you can't do this alone."

"Too dangerous... for human," Caesar said.

I raised an eyebrow.

"Koba—"

"Koba hates me," I cut across him, "and not just because I'm human. And I know it's dangerous. I'm fully aware of that." I didn't move my bandaged hand, but it seemed to become heavier. "I'm not going to stop," I said, lowering my voice seriously. "Whether we work together, or not."

He sighed, his mouth twitching as he shook his head slightly. Then he nodded.

.

.

We left before the sun had cleared the horizon, slipping out of the house without waking the others. Caesar could tell them where we'd gone. Standing at the passenger side of my truck, I forced myself to refill the clip of my pistol, fumbling slightly with only one hand, but gritting my teeth and pushing on. It took three times as long as it should have, but I refused to be beaten. Blue Eyes had reclaimed his rifle after a mild disagreement that I'd won; it would be suspicious if he didn't have it.

Moving again helped take my mind off the pain in my hand and we maintained a comfortable watchfulness around us as we moved back across the city, Blue Eyes knuckling alongside me. Our pace slowed after we crossed Route 101, and we moved onto the smaller roads, both listening hard as the distant sounds of life became audible. By silent agreement, we came to a halt and exchanged a glance. Creeping to the intersection, I peered around the corner, eyeing the buildings around the colony.

My eyes settled on a tall parking garage a few blocks away from the trickle of smoke that still rose from the tower, curling around its exposed steel beams. I waved Blue Eyes forwards and pointed the building out to him. He nodded once then hesitated.

I reached out and touched a hesitant hand to his shoulder. He gripped my wrist in return, meeting my gaze, then turned and knuckled out into the street, heading back towards the colony.

Watching him go, I sighed. I'd promised Caesar I would look out for him, in looks if not in words, but more than that, it was hard to watch my only ally go off into enemy territory. However, his part of the plan was separate from mine, so as he disappeared from view, I turned my eyes back to the buildings, picked the highest one I could see, and started towards it. Time to get to work.


	22. Cages

I bounded up the first four flights of stairs, jogged the next three, walked the next five, then gave up, panting hard as I crouched over, feeling the burn in my sides, but pleased that my knee was holding firm. The door out of the stairwell was stuck, and after several minutes of cursing and shoving, I gave up, climbing one more flight and emerging into office space. I crossed quickly to the south-east corner and pulled out my binoculars, focusing down on the old quarantine checkpoint that was stuffed full of human figures, apes moving around the edge. I scanned around and found the old bus Blue Eyes had described. Although I was too high to see inside, the guards on the roof made me sure it was the right one.

Blue Eyes would let them know Caesar was alive, and be seen around again, dispelling any suspicion. If questioned, he would say he'd gone away to think. Given what had happened to his friend, I thought it was a fair excuse. Hopefully, doubts about Koba's actions would discourage any further interest. He would feel out the mood, see if the apes' loyalties had shifted or not.

My role, for today, was observation, so that was what I did. I sat, and I watched. The sun rose higher, then began to fall again, and still I watched. As the afternoon began to fade, I stood up, stretched and retreated from the window, slipping back down the stairs while eating another of the meal bars Ellie had left for me.

I waited a long time on the ground, making sure there were no apes around. I'd spent too long watching people being rounded up, none too gently, to be able to saunter around in the open. It was practically dark when I made it to the parking structure and climbed up to the top floor, prowling between the concrete columns.

It wasn't until Blue Eyes stood upright, outlined against the pink sky, that I spotted him, and hurried over.

"Okay? Everything go alright?" I asked, and he nodded.

"What... see?" he huffed.

"Lots," I said grimly. "Most importantly, that bus hasn't been unguarded all day. We're definitely going to need a distraction." I sighed, drawing swirls in the dust with my finger. "I still think the humans are the best possibility, but I don't think I'm going to be able to get in there. The others would kick up a fuss, and if Koba came to see what it was about..." I shook my head. "If I could sit quietly, it might work, but they'll never let me."

"Why not?"

I hesitated. "If we all get through this alive, I'll tell you. But not now." I looked away, peering over the ledge out towards the colony. "Food is being ferried in, I guess from the mountains. They're using horses for that, and I can't see a way to disrupt it without it getting bloody. There's probably enough stockpiled down here by now anyway; it wouldn't make much difference."

Blue Eyes growled. "If Koba trust them to bring food, blood is good."

I gave him a look. "They're still lives, lives that would be lost."

"Traitors."

"And if we betray your father's ideals, what will that make us?" I snapped. With an effort, I took a breath. "We should try to find another way first. I don't think the food is critical." I shook my head, brushing the dust off my finger. "What's Koba doing with the people? They're just sat in there. What does he want with them? Why hasn't he killed them yet?"

"He said... they will know... cage," Blue Eyes told me.

"Crap," I said, going silent as I thought. "Well, at least he won't move them, but they'll die on their own if they're stuck in there. Can we do it tonight?"

"Too dark," Blue Eyes said, "and Koba down there."

"Okay, tomorrow it is," I agreed. "I'll keep an eye on them, see if I can work out how best to get people out. And..."

"What?" he asked, as I trailed into silence.

"Cages," I said. "I think I know something I can do, to throw Koba off. Leave it with me." I put aside the growing thought. "How's the mood, do they still follow Koba?"

He nodded. "Much fear," he grunted. "Ash..."

"I'm sorry."

"They will turn to Father," he said, conviction bringing the words faster to him.

I nodded. "We need to get back to him first. You should go get some sleep."

"You?"

"I've got stuff to do," I said, with a vicious smile. "How well do you see in the dark?"

He shrugged.

"How many fingers am I holding up?" I asked, suspiciously. In answer, he stretched out a hand, feeling through the blackness for my hand. "Good." _This could work._ "Are you alright to get back?"

He huffed.

"Fine. Go on then. Tomorrow night."

"Tom-orrow," he repeated back and was gone. Watching him, I could see his caution in the slight hesitation before he took each step. I turned away, looking out over the city. There were plenty of buildings overlooking the quarantine and the colony, and if the apes couldn't see what I was doing in the darkness...

With a smile, I jogged off down the stairs and away into the night, seeking out a hardware store.

.

.

When dawn tinged the sky pink, I had a sore wrist, a tired hand, and flecks of black all over my arm and face, but I was pleased. The black paint showed up well against the grey walls I'd chosen.

I didn't hide straight away but found a vantage point from which I could see the quarantine fences, and base of the colony, and the bus.

The humans saw the symbols first, confused faces turned up, fingers pointing, eyes widening in recognition. Their attention drew that of the apes, though they clearly didn't understand the symbol.

I didn't see where he came from, but I spotted Koba as he moved slowly across the roof overlooking the human pens. His face was upturned, his one eye darting around the five huge splodges of black paint, his face slackening in emotion.

It wasn't Caesar's symbol, his patterned window. I didn't want to give away his element of surprise just yet.

Instead, I'd drawn something else, something just for Koba. He wanted to put humans in cages. I'd reminded him that he was still held by his. The Gen-sys logo stared mockingly down from all sides.

He knew it was me. I could tell from the way he turned suddenly, looking all around, but I didn't reveal myself. I was done with racing out into the path of danger. I had a job now, a purpose, a plan. So I took satisfaction in watching his paranoid searching, then slipped away. After staying up all night, and missing many hours sleep before that, I was exhausted. I could hole up somewhere, sleep the day away, then join up with Blue Eyes this evening. And Koba would spend the whole day looking over his shoulder.


	23. Escape

The afternoon was fading when I awoke, sun streaming through a small west-facing window into the storeroom of the same hardware shop where I'd got the black paint and brushes. The indent on my left wrist, where I'd hung the paint tin off my arm, rivalled my fingers for the worst ache, and I rubbed at the marks as I stood up, stretching. I eyed my hands, side by side, the black-flecked flesh and the dusty bandages.

Slowly, I flexed the first two fingers of my left hand. They moved readily enough but tugged on the bandages, and I flinched at the stab of pain, curling my hand back into a loose fist. Not yet, but getting there. The wound no longer felt like a loss.

The apes had been busy while I'd slept and were still very active. It took me twice as long as I'd expected to get back to the building adjacent to the quarantine facility. The fenced pens were full to bursting, the crowded people inside tense and angry, their fear bleeding through into aggression and the apes guarding them were letting off bursts of gunfire to quell their rebellion. Peering down through a window, I winced at the rising tempers. It would be easier to get close with all the commotion, but if more guards were pulled in to manage the chaos, things could get trickier.

A hand grabbed my arm, jerking me backwards. I nearly screamed, barely holding the sound in as I lashed out instinctively with both hands. Luckily, only my right connected, and Blue Eyes scampered backwards, hissing indignantly.

I staggered sideways at the sudden change in momentum. "Blue Eyes! Jeez, you scared me."

"Must go, now!" he growled, knuckling away at once.

"What's happened?" I asked, urgently, jogging to keep up.

"Koba, very angry. Very, very angry," he said as he dropped down the stairs. "Meeting with others, now. Busy."

Undoubtedly, it was the best chance we were going to get. "Alright."

"What... you do?" he asked, slowing as we approached the doorway

"Reminded him of the past," I explained in a whisper. "I was trying to throw him off."

"Worked," he snorted. "He worried. Want find you. Huge search. Lots of humans found. Not you. Very, very angry."

"Well, this isn't going to make him any happier," I muttered, as we peered around the door.

"Remember sign?"

I nodded, demonstrated for him, and then slipped out of the door, bent double as I sped across to the fences, where the concrete base blocked the view of the guards. I skidded a little, throwing myself flat to my stomach. The movement of the crowded prisoners saved me, masking both the motion and sound of my approach.

Looking sideways, I peered around the edge of the fence on the right, to where the bus was sitting, brown and rusted. I found the orangutan, Maurice, quickly. He was watching me, but silently.

 _'Patience,'_ I signed to him, as Blue Eyes had taught me. I thought he nodded, but couldn't be sure.

I lifted my gaze to the guards atop the bus, waiting. They were good, and it took several minutes for them both to be looking the other way. I scrambled along the fence at once, not worried about the noise with the shouting humans inches behind me.

Another burst of gunfire made me flinch, dropping flat to the ground, but from the following silence, I deduced that it had been to discourage the others, rather than because my presence had been discovered. I crawled the last few feet to the corner and rolled backwards, balancing on my toes as I peered over the lip of concrete. The guards were just visible through a sea of heads as people slowly came back to their feet. One head, only inches away from mine, remained bowed, shaking with noisy sobs.

Turning, I looked behind me, picking out Blue Eyes's worried face, watching me. I gave him a firm nod and he disappeared at once. Ducking back down out of sight, I listened hard, trying to tell what was happening on the bus, but the boy's hopeless sobbing overlay it all like a constant beat of reproach.

Part of me desperately wanted to reach through the bars, to try to reassure him that it wasn't much longer now, that we were going to get him out, but if any of them made a fuss over my sudden appearance, the game was over.

A sudden upsurge in screeching made me look up, and I saw the two guards bounding away, towards the bus, which was the centre of the riot of noise.

I moved at once, jumping to my feet and racing around to the front of the cages, where rusty locks had been forced closed. There were cries of shock, from both in front and behind me, as people drew back from my sudden appearance, and the bus rocked on its wheels. I left the apes to their escape, working the bolts across and wrenching the gate open.

"Run!" I cried, but one man near the front flung out an arm, keeping the others back.

"You're working with them!" he snarled. "It's a trap!"

I stared at him for an instant, before glancing past him. The truth was reflected in every pair of eyes.

"That's your freedom," I said harshly, waving behind me. "Take it or don't."

A mother with a young boy in her arms pushed through, racing past me. "Thank you!" she gasped.

"Run! Head south, get out of the city," I instructed her, and turned away, towards the next pen, where people were pressed up against the gate, clamouring for me to free them as well. The rest of the crowd broke, flooding out onto the street just as Blue Eyes jumped onto the bus, ripping the door clean off its hinges. I barely spared him a glance before moving onto the next cage, struggled one-handed with the stiff bolts.

The apes could have gotten out on their own, but it would be easy for Koba's minions to track them down. The flood of humans would mask their escape, giving them a chance to get back to Caesar.

Sudden gunfire made me duck, but Blue Eyes returned fire and I got the second gate open. He screeched, a wordless call just as I saw a familiar face pushing forwards.

"Free the others!" I shouted, hoping at least some of them would heed me, then I turned, racing away, pushing through the crowd to catch up with the apes.

"Blue!"

He looked around, waving me on with one careless hand, not slowing his pace, and I fell in behind him, drawing looks from the other apes though none of them objected. It wasn't until we swerved around a corner, leaving the tide of humans behind, that I heard the running footsteps following us. The apes heard them too, Blue Eyes raising his rifle as we both turned.

It was Denny. He stared at Blue Eyes's rifle, then at me. I hesitated.

"Go," I said to Blue Eyes. "Get them to your father. I'll catch up with you."

He did as I suggested, leading the other apes on, leaving Denny and me alone in the street.

"What do you want?" I asked.

"What are you doing?"

"Does it matter?"

"Did you draw those signs?"

"Does it matter?" I repeated, frustrated.

"So that's it?" he spat. "You were part of them all along?"

I strode back towards him. "You know what? What I drew had nothing to do with me, and even less to do with you. You should leave, now." Last time, his anger had hurt me, but now it just fanned my own anger hotter.

"But—"

"No," I cut him off flatly. "There is nothing else for you to say to me. You've made it clear what you think, and I don't care anymore. Run, while you still have the time."

Even as I turned away, I knew it was true. Yes, we'd been close, but now... I felt liberated. The last tie cut, both feet set onto my chosen path.

"They deserved to know who are you!" Denny shouted after me.

"Now they do," I called back, then broke into a jog. He didn't come after me again.

.

.

I didn't catch up to the apes until well into Pacific Heights, where they'd slowed. Maurice looked back as I approached, and shifted aside to give me space as we approached Will's house, slowing even further as Blue Eyes made his way up towards the front door, which opened.

The rumbles rose around me as Caesar stepped out, and I couldn't help my triumphant smile as he greeted his allies, the expression returned by Malcolm and Ellie as they slipped out of the house behind Caesar.

Blue Eyes was signing, falling back to his preferred language now he wasn't crippled by my lack of knowledge. Caesar stiffened at once.

"Must go, now!" he barked. I jumped upright, as Malcolm hurried down the steps.

"Koba will be watching," I warned them.

"We can go through the subway," Malcolm said. "It comes up right in the tower."

I gaped at him. The subway. Of course. Why hadn't I thought of that?!

"Females coming," Caesar said to me, as the apes spilled back down onto the street. "Cornelia..."

"I'm coming with you," I told him, then turned to Ellie. "They'll be coming from the bridge, probably with escorts. A big group. Take the truck, warn them about Koba if you can."

She nodded at once, and I looked back at Caesar, raising an eyebrow. He shook his head but didn't object, and I fell into his troop as Malcolm took off along the street, cutting south towards Civil Centre subway station.


	24. A Small Price

**A/N:** Originally, 24 and 25 were going to be one chapter... but it ran away from me. There was a fairly obvious change in pace and tone, and to fit with the rest of the recent chapters, I decided to split it. But you're getting both at the same time because I don't like holding stuff back. So enjoy!  
P.S. Still having trouble with being unable to edit on the Doc Manager, which is really annoying, but hey-ho. Please let me know if anything mucks up, and I'll do my best to fix it!

.

.

The journey under the city was cold, damp and long. I was still kicking myself that I hadn't thought of using the tunnels. The apes clearly weren't completely comfortable underground, which was unsurprising given their limited vision in the dark, and we didn't see another soul as we sped east. In fact, the only obstruction came from an abandoned car that we had to squeeze around. We kept moving and were just passing the maintenance shaft of what I guessed to be Montgomery station when a burst of gunfire shredded the air around us, bullets pinging off the concrete walls and metal tracks. For a wonder, none of the apes shrieked out as we all dove off the track. I landed on both my outstretched hands and gasped in pain as I jolted my finger, but I kept silent, rolling over and cradling the throbbing limb in my lap as I peered down the tunnel.

"Who's there?" a man's voice called out. "If you're human, you'd better say so!"

"It's me! It's Malcolm! Don't shoot!"

I flinched at his shout, biting my lip as I stood up, moving over to him in a crouch.

"Get them out, up the stairs," he whispered to me.

"Be careful," I breathed back. "Don't tell them you knew about me." I scuttled away before he could respond, touching Blue Eyes's arm and guiding him over to the stairs. Caesar was moments behind us.

"Alright, I'm coming out," Malcolm called, as we reached the top of the stairs and eased the door open. "Don't shoot!"

It was something of a maze to get from the back passages out into the main station and then onto the street. I was shocked when we emerged to find the sky was already lightening. Had we been that long freeing the apes from the bus, and then down in the tunnels? I spared a thought for how Ellie might be doing, before moving up next to Caesar and pointing up at the skeleton top of the tower, emblazoned against the grey sky.

The rest of the troop gathered quickly behind us, Blue Eyes moving up from the back as I looked around. It was too quiet. The apes started moving off, but I remained put for a moment, digging my binoculars out of their pocket on my thigh and focussing upwards. We were just too far away for them to be effective, but I was sure that the movement was from apes. They were all up there. Why? Had Koba called off the search for the escaped prisoners, either ape or human? Had he guessed what they were doing? Or had the females already arrived?

 _Munchkin_... My heart skipped a beat and I shoved the binoculars away as I took off after the apes, sticking to the shadows at the side of the street, in case any of Koba's followers looked down.

.

.

We reached the bottom of the tower without a single sighting of another ape, and my stomach was clenching tighter with every passing second of silence. Caesar paused, looking over at me, and I knew what he was going to say. This was between him and Koba. An ape matter. I nodded and he reciprocated the gesture before continuing on into the building. A couple of the other apes, Blue Eyes included, gave me glances as they passed me, following their leader into the dark interior.

I stood alone, counting the seconds. As soon as I was sure they were well on their way, I darted inside, turned left immediately towards the stairs, and began to climb, rubbing my itchy left hand as I jogged up.

Yes, it was a matter between the apes, but I sure as hell wasn't going to sit there and wait to see who came down. And if Koba triumphed, I was going to make sure he didn't reach the ground alive.

.

.

It was a hard climb, passing far above the levels we had used regularly, and I was panting by the time I reached the last of the structurally completed floors. Abandoned construction equipment was everywhere and I had to squeeze past it as I searched for a way higher, all the time wondering how Caesar was faring. Kicking past a stack of buckets, I shouldered my way out onto bare scaffolding. There was a constant breeze, chilling me, but the sky was turning pinker. Day was dawning. I climbed even higher.

I stopped several levels below where the apes were all perched on the exposed steel beams and hunkered down behind a pillar of concrete, out of sight, scanning above me. The sheer number of apes was astounding, and for a moment I wondered if the females had indeed already arrived. I couldn't see any sign of young among them, however, so was forced to admit I'd underestimated the numbers of Caesar's full troop. Mirrored flickers of movement caught my eye, faces turning in the same direction, and I swivelled around to look out past the other side of the pillar.

High above me, several floors above the majority of the apes was crouched a single hulking figure.

Koba was staring down into the city, his shoulders hunched, rejecting the company of even those few apes who dared to venture to the same elevation. I looked down, trying to triangulate his gaze, and smiled. The largest Gen-sys logo was right below him. He was still brooding.

The itch in my hand peaked, and I turned away, gritting my teeth as I tried to dig my fingers below the tight bandages to scratch, but was unable to reach the right spot.

 _Hellfire!_ I growled to myself and my resolve broke. I ripped at the thick wad, tearing it away and letting the gauze flutter to the ground. Sweet relief. My right fingers wandered over my palm, scratching freely as they went, and my eyes half-closed at the bliss. I had to open them eventually though. I looked down.

It wasn't as bad as I'd been expecting. Ellie had saved the first joint, leaving me with a stubby little digit, a row of black stitches on the inside where she'd pulled a flap of skin over the end of the wound. The join was outlined in red and the skin around stained pink, but there was far less blood than there had been, and the ragged mess was gone. What remained was oddly clean.

 _It was only a finger_ , I reasoned with myself, clenching my right fist to stop myself tracing the wound. _A small price, compared to what you could have lost._

A sudden upsurge in noise made me look up and my heart tightened as it leapt. On the other side of the open core of the building, apes were climbing. Blue Eyes and Maurice led the way, followed by the grey, hairless Rocket, and the huge gorilla, Luca. Caesar was next, his pace steady.

I pushed slowly to my feet, rising as he climbed, both hands pressed flat against the cold concrete behind me, holding my breath. The other apes were all peering down, hooting and calling, watching the climbers. Those further around the building went quiet first, realising who it was. As Caesar stepped up, a few stories higher than me, his four lieutenants keeping a clear space around him, all the others went silent too. Fear or guilt?

There was a moment of tension when none of them moved or made a sound. Caesar broke it, moving forwards between Maurice and Rocket, and the others all fell back at once, clearing his path. They knew they were in the wrong. They knew they'd made rash decisions or followed the rash decisions of others. And they also knew Caesar wasn't interested in dealing with them just yet. His sights were set higher.

I inched forward, looking up as Caesar moved to the nearest vertical girder, and began to climb again. Koba hadn't moved, still sitting alone, staring down his demons. Those apes who had dared to be on the same level were swinging glances between him and Caesar, scampering uncertainly back and forth.

Just when I thought they would have to break and decide to either disturb him or descend to face Caesar themselves, Koba stood, grabbing something from beside him before swinging over the side of the scaffolding, and beginning to descend.

I began to move, darting back under the overhang above and hurrying around the circular tower, towards the place where Koba was descending. I could just about see the opening where the exposed beams would be overhead when Koba's roar reached me.

"Apes win war!" he screamed. "Apes together, strong!"

I skidded to a halt then edged forwards, trying to see without being seen.

"Caesar weak," Koba growled.

I could see them now, barely feet apart, a rifle resting on Koba's shoulder. I saw Caesar's gaze focus on it, and was sure the other apes would notice it as well.

"Koba weaker," he said, and though he didn't shout, the words carried.

Koba lowered the rifle from his shoulder, looking at it for a second. My teeth bared in triumph. If he used it now, he would only confirm Caesar's accusation. Everyone waited.

With a feral scream, Koba tossed the gun aside and leapt.


	25. Koba vs Caesar

Caesar wasn't quite ready enough, Koba's feet hitting him hard in the chest, and he fell backwards with a snarl, dropping between the steel beams to the lower half of the structure and landing hard on his back. Koba jumped down on top of him, but Caesar lifted his feet and shoved, sending the other ape reeling backwards.

They both climbed up and again Koba struck first, both hands smashing down towards Caesar, who barely turned his shoulder in time, taking the blow on his back, rather than his head.

The blows continued, Koba pressing forwards, Caesar retreating under the storm, being pushed further and further towards the edge.

I drew in a hissing breath, then gasped as he finally dodged too far, and fell. Somehow, one of his feet caught Koba's ankle, flinging the scarred ape off his perch as Caesar toppled backwards, both falling towards me. There was an almighty clang overhead and I flinched, covering my face and turning away as pipes and pieces of scaffolding rained down.

Concerned hoots echoed around from the apes as I straightened up again. I could see Blue Eyes above me, his head bobbing as he looked down. His cries calmed somewhat and I guessed Caesar must be okay but I couldn't see him through the newly fallen debris. I could see Koba though, touching a raw wound on his side. First blood.

Koba gave another angry scream, casting around and picking up a length of steel rod.

I swallowed. Not good.

Koba launched himself from his high ground and Caesar came back into my view as he retreated, leaping backwards and taking off through the maze of steel girders, moving away from me. The other apes swung around after them, chasing the fight. I took off in the other direction, racing back towards the ladder I'd climbed. Time to descend a little. I hadn't planned to be this close to the fight.

.

.

I made it down 3 floors before coming to a halt, hearing Koba's shouts but unable to pick out words. Hurrying over to the internal cavity, I looked up. Caesar was outlined against the sky, his steps weary as he moved back towards the edge but he halted and stood strong and tall, staring down the foe I couldn't see.

My heart roared with triumph to see him still upright, so fierce despite his injury. The next second I quailed, as there was a scream of fury and a huge tower of scaffolding beyond Caesar began to fall.

My wordless shout was lost in the howling of the other apes as the floor collapsed beneath him. For one second, I lost sight of him among the tumbling debris but then, with a great wrench of my heart, I saw a dark shape break free, flying through the open space at the centre of the tower. I didn't even have time to scream. Was I really meant to watch him fall twice?

Somehow, magically, his fist closed on a dangling chain from the crane above and he swung back and forth. Alive.

Koba had also fallen prey to the collapsing floor, and he'd taken the same solution. For an instant, they danced around each other, swinging wildly. Then, inevitably, they collided.

It was close, vicious, and messy. Their blows were wild, and missed more often than not, lashing out with their feet as well as their hands. I thought Caesar was fading, forced to hold himself up with his injured side to land more powerful blows, and the strain was showing. My breath hissed through my teeth as I leaned further out, my eyes darting to follow the fight. I should have been looking down.

The explosion made my jaw clamp shut, my ears ringing and I literally threw myself backwards, away from the roaring fireball, landing hard and rolling, hands over my head as the entire structure swayed.

The fireball dissipated before it reached me, but I still felt the wave of heat searing my hands, ruffling my hair as it passed. I remained motionless, listening to the crashes and groaning, sure that any second would be my last as the tower caved in and crushed me.

But I was still alive, and remained alive as the groans subsided into silence.

With a groan, I lifted my head, coughing at the dust and smoke on the air. Apes were shrieking, the high pitch grating against the occasional rumble as the tower settled again. Stumbling back to the edge, I looked out. The crane had collapsed, shards of yellow metal thrown in all directions, a huge section balanced precariously below me. Sheets of corrugated steel had slid down, thrown haphazardly around to rest against bent pipes and whole sections of walls and floors had caved in.

Two levels above me, a familiar ape bounded recklessly over a hanging ledge, pulling up apes who'd fallen, pausing over those who lay still. All around, other apes were doing the same, checking their comrades, freeing those trapped by rubble. I scrambled to the right, ready to lend a hand when I saw something that made me stop.

Koba, lifting a huge piece of steel mesh off of a fallen ape, who was hooting in pain.

I stood frozen, unable to move. Maybe, just maybe, there was still hope for him. At this crucial moment, he was helping. Even though his back was to me, a perfect chance to eliminate him once and for all, I hesitated. In that second, I almost believed.

Then Koba picked up the rifle that had lain on the ape's stomach and dropped the steel back onto him. My heart hardened with anger and I hated myself for my moment of weakness as he moved out of view. He emerged on the other side of an upright pipe and raised the gun.

I turned my head, saw Blue Eyes working beside his father, freeing several apes, but there was no time for me to call out. Even as I opened my mouth, the rifle fired, and bullets ricocheted over their heads. Koba's second burst of gunfire was better aimed as he climbed up a fallen piece of the crane, and a gorilla who'd just stood up jerked horribly before falling backwards, his death giving Caesar and Blue Eyes enough time to scamper out of sight behind a huge shaft of red steel.

I saw a flash of fur, moving fast to the right, despite the continued hail of bullets.

Seconds later, Blue Eyes appeared on the ledge, hurling a complete bundle of steel rods through the air. They fell short, crashing down and scattering only a foot in front of Koba, who snarled and turned his rifle on Blue Eyes, just as other apes came up beside him. They all scattered, but Maurice gave a shocked hoot and collapsed.

Koba growled again, swinging his gun back and forth as he continued to fire. He had them all pinned down.

My hand reached down for my pistol, but much too slowly, getting tangled as I stepped forwards.

"KOBA!"

He turned, rifle falling as he spun, his one eye searching. It found me quickly.

For a second we stared, both faces twisted with hateful snarls. The barrel of the rifle began to rise while my hand was still scrabbling uselessly in my pocket.

A flash of dark fur came out of nowhere, literally falling from the sky to collide with Koba. The pair of them both went tumbling back down towards me and I dived away, ducking back behind a pillar and peering out the side.

It was Caesar who came rolling to a halt only metres away from me, silent and still. I could hear Koba's growling and quickly glanced away, peering over the edge to where Koba was hanging from an exposed beam with one hand.

Turning back, I was relieved to see Caesar stirring, climbing to his feet. He gave me one unreadable glance but I wasn't fazed by his anger. I just darted my eyes sideways, indicating where Koba was and watched his focus change.

As he moved forwards, I shifted the other way again, hanging by the fingers of my right hand as I leaned out to watch. The other apes were all doing the same, one of them mere feet away from me but not caring, all of us focused on the one dangling above a deadly drop and the one standing over him.

"Ape... not... kill ape."

My eyes widened, stunned by Koba's words. He would use that now? After everything he'd done? All the deaths he'd caused? My gaze, like that of all those around me, moved to Caesar. For an instant, he didn't say anything and I swallowed.

Very slowly, he crouched down, reaching for Koba.

I bowed my head as my heart broke.

Thoughts whirled through my head too fast for me to track.

Yes, this was a good thing.

No! How could Caesar be so foolish?

How could I have been so foolish as to allow a spark of hope? I would run, at once. Whether he truly repented or not, I wouldn't tempt Koba like that. I wouldn't tempt Caesar's peace.

There was such strength in Caesar's body as he lifted Koba up, and such weakness in the gesture.

I wanted to scream, to rage at him, to challenge whatever logic he thought this was.

His head came up slightly as if he'd heard my thoughts. I couldn't see his expression but his head turned and I followed his gaze.

Blue Eyes, supporting Maurice, who had a hand over the side of his head, steadied on the other side by Rocket and Luca. Caesar's truly loyal followers.

He looked back down at Koba.

"You... are not ape."

He let go.

Koba screamed as he fell.


	26. Silver Glass

It wasn't clean. Koba hit a wire, spinning his body around before it smashed into the suspended wreckage of the crane below. A huge hook followed, dragged by the wire he'd snagged, and their combined weight sent the metal crashing down. It was surprisingly loud, but the silence that followed was louder still.

I kept staring down, unable to tear my eyes away until a sudden hoot made me jump and look up. It was Rocket shouting his support, quickly joined by others until the sound rose above us all, taking over the morning. Pulling myself back in from the edge, I sank to the ground. Was it truly over?

Looking around, I watched the apes giving voice to their leader and found my eyes drawn to furtive movement. There were those, higher up or further back, that didn't join in the cried. They were backing away, slinking down the sides of the building. Fleeing. Koba's supporters.

For a moment, I considered pointing them out but I held my tongue. Let them run. This was Caesar's moment. There would undoubtedly be time for them later. For now, I didn't want to draw attention to myself. And as soon as I got back to the ground, I was going to have a nap.

A sudden thud behind me made me jump, my eyes snapping open with a sudden, horrible fear. It was only Blue Eyes. He shuffled over and crouched a little way away, watching me.

"Thank... you," he huffed roughly. "You... okay?"

I nodded then paused and shook my head, pushing quickly to my feet. "There's something I have to do," I told him, moving away at almost a run. No more looking over my shoulder. No more fear. Time to be sure.

Descending the stairs took far less effort than climbing them had, but my heart was still pounding by the time I reached the ground and began my search. The ground floor looked even worse than it had before; the explosion had painted everything black, flattening all the temporary walls we'd put up. All that remained of the Igloo, the little hospital area, was some scraps of smouldering white canvas.

The wreckage of the crane was hard to miss. The mountain of twisted yellow metal shifted as I clambered cautiously over it, checking in every crevice.

I found him in a surprisingly clear circle, not a single piece of rubble on top of him, though there was plenty beneath him.

Jumping down onto a wide beam, I stepped down to the sheet he lay upon.

His one good eye was open, staring up at the sky, but it moved to watch me as I sat down a foot away from him. He looked awful, blood trickling down from his mouth and an injury on top of his head. One arm was clearly broken, and possibly several of his ribs, from the odd shape of his chest. More blood bubbled up from his mouth with every torturous breath.

His hand closest to me moved and for a second I tensed, thinking he would try and attack, even in this state. However, it was only his fingers that moved, one of them tracing shapes onto the metal below. I had to twist my head around before I realised they were letters.

 _W... H... Y..._

Why.

"Why?" I confirmed.

He blinked once.

"Why did he do this?"

No blink. Just a continuous stare.

"Why am I here?"

Blink.

I looked away for a moment, straight up at the sky, before I answered.

"To be certain," I said and my voice was firm but not harsh. "If you'd just fallen, I knew you couldn't have... but with the stunt act..." I looked him over. "You survived. You might have even been able to crawl away." I took in the sight of his injuries again and knew that wasn't a concern anymore. "I wanted to know for certain." I met his gaze again. "Caesar has to know for certain. So that you don't haunt him any more than you already will."

Koba's eye left me, moving to focus on the pale blue sky above us. His hand twitched as if he would reach up and grasp the sky in his fist.

"I meant what I said; I wish you'd had had a better life," I said.

His eyes closed, his hand falling back to his side. I sat, watching the blood bubble on his lips for a few seconds before reaching out and taking his wrist, feeling for the pulse. I sat there until I felt the last beat of his heart resonate through my fingers. Still I held on, making sure, as I looked up to the sky.

"And all shall turn to silver glass," I whispered, and pushed to my feet, climbing away without looking back. It didn't matter that I'd been there. In the end, everyone dies alone.


	27. No Goodbyes

Lost in my own thoughts, I had almost reached the edge of the twisted metal ruin when Caesar's voice cut through my reverie.

"Leave him!"

Looking up, I saw Malcolm, his hair ruffled, his face stained with soot, standing at the edge of the shaft that led down to the underbelly of the tower—the hub of engineering that had kept it standing through years of earthquakes. Surrounding him were 5 apes, all looking back in surprise before moving reluctantly away. I picked my way forwards, having to watch my feet on the metal obstacle course.

"Are you okay?" I asked Malcolm, frowning as I took in the details of his appearance, from the tears in his clothes to the bits of dirt and dust in his hair.

He nodded, reaching out a hand to touch my arm gently as Caesar stopped opposite us. Malcolm looked at the ape. "You're not safe here," he said, without preamble. "They made contact, other people are coming, soldiers."

"What?" I gasped. "How? Who? From where?"

Malcolm shook his head, glancing at me. "Dreyfus, Finney, Werner. They got them on the radio, after the attack, from somewhere up north, I don't know where. But they know what happened, and other people might have been listening but unable to respond."

He looked back at Caesar. "You have to leave now. Everyone. Before they get here."

My heart plummeted, but Caesar was shaking his head. Malcolm blinked at him.

"Caesar, if you don't go, it'll be all-out war," he said, his voice rising.

"War has already begun," Caesar said regretfully. "Ape started war, and human... human will not forgive."

I couldn't watch the pain on his face anymore, dropping my eyes to the ground.

" _You_ must go," he continued, "before the fighting begins."

I froze, my eyes still on the ground.

"I'm sorry... my friend."

There was a moment of silence.

"I thought we had a chance," Malcolm said, caught between sorrow and anger.

"I... did too," Caesar said.

I looked up at him through blurred eyes, seeing the rueful twitch of his mouth. They stared at each other for one more second before Caesar reached out and pulled Malcolm down until their foreheads touched. I looked away, watching Blue Eyes and Maurice descend, the former returning my gaze.

Malcolm and Caesar broke apart with matching sad smiles then both looked at me.

I looked from one to the other. _Who first?_

"Give me a minute?" I asked Malcolm. He nodded, brushing my arm as he retreated to the half-shadows from where he'd emerged.

With a deep breath, I squared my shoulders, turned to Caesar, and promptly lost all my words. Everything that had been building for the past three days drifted away like smoke on the wind as I met his bright green-gold eyes.

"I'm not leaving," I said, resorting to bluntness. He gave me an unsurprised huff. "This isn't going to be... spears, or guns. They'll think they know enough about what's happened down here. War, human war, is... ugly. Really ugly. I don't..." I sighed. "I don't know what's going to happen, and I don't know what I can do... but please. _Please_. Let me stay. Let me try."

His head tilted down and my heart stuttered with panic.

"I won't go," I said, my voice rising. "I can't go with them, and I won't just walk away. I'm not asking for anything open. Just let me have something to fight for."

"Jac," he spoke over me and my eyes closed.

I'd tried fighting for a memory, an ideal. It wasn't enough to keep me alive. I'd been throwing myself too deep into danger. I needed something to come back to. People who could be pleased to see me get through something, even if it was only because I might be useful.

"I can help," I whispered, my eyes still closed. "They're expecting you. They won't be expecting me. Just making them pause might be enough to make them stop. _Please_."

"Jac," he repeated, and I looked up again, shocked to see him smiling. "You protected my sons. You're always welcome," he said. "I'd be glad of your help."

My knees buckled but I caught myself. "Thank you," I breathed, the relief that flooded me shocking my system.

He huffed, then looked back to where the rest of the apes had descended from above, and yet more were streaming in from the city. The females. We exchanged one more glance, then split apart, him to his family, me towards Malcolm.

He read my face before I'd even reached him. "You're not coming."

I shook my head but found that I could still smile. "Thank you, for everything you've done. For me. For him." I frowned, rubbing my head as I thought. "You should find Ellie and Alex. Then gather as many other people as you can. There are cars and supplies. Best to stay out of here, I think," I added, glancing up at the scorch marks from the explosion, "but you know where everything else is."

"Jac—"

"Maybe go east? Or south? If the soldiers were north, probably best to avoid them, so that people don't go panicking and shooting their mouths off. Don't tell me, best if I don't know—"

"Jac!"

"I'm sorry," I blurted out, staring at the ground.

"Are you going to be okay?"

"Me?" I choked on the bitter laughter. "I'm not the one having to leave."

Malcolm shook his head, looking past me. "No. He's right. It's better for us to go. Safer."

I turned and my heart melted. Cornelia was standing inches away from Caesar, Munchkin asleep in her arms, Blue Eyes looking on.

"You'll be okay," Malcolm said, and I looked back at him, too slow to wipe the smile off my face. "And so will we."

I nodded, trying to match his confidence. "Take care of them," I said, giving him a quick hug that he returned. "Especially your family."

He gave me a look. "You take care of yours too," he said knowingly.

I smiled but didn't contradict him. "I'll do my best."

"I know you will," he said, retreating further back into the shadows, pausing to look at me one last time before he was gone. Neither of us said goodbye.

With a sigh that was more relief than anything else, I sat down on a piece of the metal crane and watched the sun streaming down. It felt like everything was over, though I knew there was so much more to come. Leaning back, I closed my eyes. It could wait. It could all wait.

.

.

.

 **A/N:** Not quite an ending, but a pause :)

The sequel, 'And So We Descend' is now up on my profile, so go and check it out!

Before anyone else suggests it... I am aware of the novelisation of War. I will NOT be reading it before writing the sequel to this work. I tried with Dawn (despite having it brought to my attention under less-than-ideal circumstances), and it just didn't work for me while I was also writing. As the novel is derived from the script, it's not consistent with the on-screen details, and when writing, I can only go by one of them. So I'm setting the novels aside for a good long time. I hope to one day be able to go back and read them with enjoyment, but that's a long way off. If any of you want to go and investigate, they're available on Amazon, as well as the companion novels (Firestorm and Revelations).

Beyond that... as ever, a huge HUGE thank you to anyone and everyone who has left reviews, and I hope to see you all again!

.

Friendly reminder that this story is part of the LLF (Long Live Feedback) Comment Project, which was created to improve communication between readers and authors. This author invites and appreciates feedback, including:

\- Short reviews

\- Long reviews

\- Questions

\- Constructive criticism

\- "3" as extra 'favourites'

\- Reader-reader interaction

This author sees and appreciates all comments, and does her best to reply to all of them, but may occasionally miss one.

If you do not want a response to your comments, sign with "whisper" and the author will see and appreciate the comment but will not respond.


	28. SEQUEL NOTIFICATION

Sequel is up and live! Can be found on my profile page, just click on my user name at the top to go there. Title is "And So We Descend".

Check it out, if you desire to! Thanks!


End file.
